QUESTION: Are free-trade agreements good or bad for U.S. manufacturing jobs?

Northwest Indiana News ^ | Monday, October 06, 2003 | Barbara Glepko-Toncheff (Letter to the Editor)

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

The American consumers have hurt themselves by being awed by the "better deal" Trojan horse and consistently sending their hard-earned dollars overseas to the coffers of foreign-owned companies being subsidized by the American government. These companies then take the lion's share of the profits, pay taxes there to support their homeland, and come back and buy up more of the American pie, while greedy politicians and CEOs to massage our trade laws to their benefit.

Every American should read author Roger Simmermaker's hot new book: "How Americans Can Buy American" before our sovereignty is completely sold out and the living standard bar is lowered more. The first chapter can be read online, and the author can be contacted there.

Burdened with legacy costs, three times higher taxes and government-imposed regulations, domestic-owned companies have to compete with slave labor and are forced to look for the cheapest way to conduct business to please the consumer's demands for the cheapest, thus the job exodus.

In essence, the American consumers helped fuel the same vehicle that came back and ran over them. We will become a colony again by losing our manufacturing independence, only this time under Asian rule. Total capitalism will be the death of our middle class society. Do you think the wealthiest among us care? Only Wal-Mart workers and rich CEOs will be left.

The Internal Revenue Service was formed to make up for the deficit when the tariffs were dropped in 1913. That's why all four great men on Mount Rushmore were protectionists. Do you like April 15? Grandma was right when she told you, "Don't be penny wise and pound foolish!"

Barbara Glepko-Toncheff

Chagrin Falls, Ohio

[Willie Green]

Export Illusions: Most International Trade Agreements are about Investment, Not Exports

[Support Free Republic]

Hi mom!

[axiom9]

Regulation, Taxes and Restrictions make sending manufacturing overseas awfully tempting. If it is less expensive to manufacture overseas, why should we continue to manufacture for more money? Eventually workers end up paying the price anyway with higher prices on goods that cost more to manufacture.

It's best that the US exercise our technological superiority and migrate our workforce to defining the future of the marketplace rather than let it push us around. We already produce way too much agricultural products that the government has to subsidize them. Other nations can produce food for less money, why don't we just buy it from them and then we can sell them our GM products or technology?

Protectionism led to horrible economic times in our country. Do we really want to return to horrible times or build what could be an even more affluent future?

[Willie Green]

Protectionism led to horrible economic times in our country.

"The prohibiting duties we lay on all articles of foreign manufacture which prudence requires us to establish at home, with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves without regard to difference of price, secures us against a relapse into foreign dependency."

--Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Say, 1815.

[BlackbirdSST]

Do we really want to return to horrible times or build what could be an even more affluent future?

Want fries with that? Very little affluence working at Burger King. Blackbird.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

For the first 200 years America had various forms of protectionist policies. During that time we became the strongest nation on earth, with a middle-class the envy of the world. BTW, the Republican Party platforms included tariffs for a century.

Of course protectionism can be misapplied, but when applied correctly, it saves entire American industries.

Right now, from Wrigley gum to Cisco routers, American patents and copyrights are being stolen to the tune of $20 billion (according to the companies) in China alone.

And, we have not even begun to discuss national security; nor, the amount of taxpayer money going to subsidize corporate offshoring.

[y2k_free_radical]

However,this was an exceedingly big cause of the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

[general_re]

Burger King isn't the be-all and end-all of the service sector - banking, insurance, telecommunications, and software are all service-sector industries. And they are industries where, not coincidentally, the US is the world leader. Really, proponents of manufacturing ought to wonder to themselves why, if manufacturing is so critical, we are still by far the richest country in the world, despite thirty years of declines in manufacturing.

The sky is not falling ;)

[GOPcapitalist]

with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves without regard to difference of price

Therein lies the key. If the domestic good sells at the same or a cheaper price than the foreign one and no significant quality difference distinguishes the two, consumers will go with the domestic one anyway. They would be stupid not to as that would mean paying more for the same thing. So Jefferson was mistaken and the tariffs he supposedly espoused in that quote were useless.

[taxed2death]

Yea, "protectionism", or tariffs were just hell on Harley Davidson when R. Reagan, a real conservative, imposed them against the Japs.

If it weren't for tariffs, HD would be a thing of the past, just another American business down the tubes.

[Malsua]

>>Other nations can produce food for less money, why don't we just buy it from them and then we can sell them our GM products or technology?
<<

Uhm, because if they have a bad year or there is a trade embargo or whatever, we are beholden to them. In that event WE STARVE!. The U.S. Gov't pays farmers to have EXCESS capacity, in good years, we feed ourselves and others, in bad years, we don't go hungry.

[oceanview]

and we also have a tariff on imported light trucks.

[Willie Green]

So Jefferson was mistaken and the tariffs he supposedly espoused in that quote were useless.

The tariffs weren't "useless" whatsoever".
They not only facilitated the development of domestic industries, they were also the primary source of federal revenue. Don't you think it would be nice to conduct business here in the United States without corporate income taxes, FICA, Social Security, etc. etc. etc.???

How do you think Jefferson was able to purchase the Louisiana Territory??
With federal revenue obtained by tariffs!!!
Sheeesh. With the way Dubya is racking up the Budget Deficit and National Debt, we'll probably have to sell those states back to the French!

[GOPcapitalist]

The tariffs weren't "useless" whatsoever

They were when the domestic price was equal to or lesser than the foreign price on identical goods. If the domestic good is cheaper (and it would be so long as the prices were identical due to the shipping costs), little reason exists to buy the foreign good anyway...that is unless you like paying higher prices for the same stuff.

[GOPcapitalist]

However,this was an exceedingly big cause of the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Don't forget the Great Depression. The US enacted a protective tariff in 1930 that sent the entire civilized world into retaliatory tariffs against each other. It slashed international trade in half and turned a recession into the worst economic disaster of this century.

[Filibuster_60]

Given that manufacturing is a whopping 14 percent of our economy, down from 50+ percent half a century ago, you'd think we're on our way to economic ruin by now.

[Filibuster_60]

Not everyone would agree with your assessment. The US didn't become an economic superpower by shunning protectionism, but neither did it do so by embracing it. Maybe it's news to you that until 9/11, we were by far the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world - what China, Europe and Japan got was literally peanuts compared to us. In sheer dollars our government and economy are easily the most foreign-owned in the world. This is hardly without precedent in our history. It was largely foreign capital that put us on the map as an economic power in the first place, in the mid-to-late 1800s.

[Recourse]

Manufacturing employment has declined for the same reason farming employment has declined. The productivity increases have been profound. For example, American steelmaking capacity increased by 16 million metric tons between 1995 and 2000, with nearly the entire rise coming from mini-mills. They are seven times more efficient than integrated producers in terms of labor productivity, and consistently more profitable than the older, larger, integrated mills.

Manufacturing jobs are down because of automation, robotics, and other technological advances.

[Willie Green]

Manufacturing jobs are down because of automation, robotics, and other technological advances.

And that's precisely why all the products in the stores say "Made In USA" instead of "Made In China". </sarcasm>

Who do you think you're trying to fool with that phony hooey about automation?

[EagleMamaMT]

Read later.