That's interesting, I've read articles saying that we've lost 5 million manufacturing jobs in the last 5 years. I'm not saying that I necessarily believe it, but that is what was reported. I'm curious as to what the real story is here.
The major loss of American manufacturing jobs is not a lie and is well-documented. Rush does himself and the country no service by ignoring reality and quoting a single source of misinformation against a tidal wave of proof to the contrary.
Global free trade might be OK if it existed. China will not allow American business free access to Chinese markets. They insist that products sold there have to be, in large part, built there. That is not free trade. China has even told Boeing that it will not buy Boeing jets not built mostly in China. That is nonsense and should be grounds to stop the flood of cheap Chinese goods into the United States until it is corrected.
China is hell-bent on destroying American manufacturing as a strategic goal. Our turncoat business leaders are in lock-step to help them achieve that goal. I cannot envision a way to destroy the economy of the United States faster than exporting all of our manufacturing into China proper or to Chinese-owned businesses in other countries. It is absolute national suicide.
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics at
http://www.bls.gov/iag/iag.manufacturing.htm Manufacturing
Manufacturing is by far the largest of the goods-producing industries in terms of employment. While factories account for just a little more than a third of goods-producing establishments, manufacturing employees outnumber their colleagues in construction and mining by nearly 3-to-1. Manufacturing represents about 5 percent of all establishments and about 14 percent of all employment covered by unemployment insurance.
Employment data based on an establishment survey show annual average employment in manufacturing fluctuating from 18.1 million to 18.8 million between 1991 and 2000, before declining sharply in 2001 and 2002. In 2002, manufacturing employment stood at 16.7 million. From its cyclical trough in 1991, employment for the economy as a whole increased every year until it fell between 2001 and 2002.
Over the 1991-2002 period, the unemployment rate in manufacturing rose to 7.8 percent in 1992 and fell to 3.6 percent in 2000, then jumped to 5.2 percent in 2001 and 6.7 percent in 2002. The overall unemployment rate in 2002 was 5.8 percent.
Click on the link for charts.
Connecticut lost 12,000 jobs in July 2003 alone.
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"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade." ~ Karl Marx, On the Question of Free Trade, January 9, 1848
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/01/09ft.htm#marx "Communists and socialists feel sure that setting up international “free” trade systems which impose regulations chuck full of intrigues, redistribution plans, arbitrary law, and interdependence schemes, will win out against the conservative interests of every free nation. What could be better than to use “free” trade to reverse the advantage of the relatively free, moral, prosperous, and strong nations of the Earth, so that the tyrannical, amoral, poor, and weak nations of the socialist bloc might get the upper hand? What could be a more cunning approach than to market the idea that those who oppose “free” trade are enemies of freedom?"
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