Posted on 09/18/2005 9:19:51 AM PDT by Willie Green
Angel Mills worked at GST AutoLeather in Williamsport, Md., most of her adult life. She cut, inspected, packed and shipped leather upholstery until she was laid off in June 2003 as the company scaled back local operations and shifted production to Mexico.
"It's sad. It's scary. I've been a factory worker all my life, and I didn't know what I wanted to do," said Ms. Mills, a 38-year-old Williamsport resident with a teenage son.
But by March 2004 she was taking a half-year course to become a state-licensed massage therapist. A federal program that helps workers who lose jobs owing to foreign competition paid for her training and offered extended unemployment benefits.
In July, she started working at Venetian Salon and Spa in Hagerstown, Md.
~~~SNIP~~~
Mr. Thomas said that for all trade adjustment program workers passing through the consortium, the average wage was $14.36 an hour before the layoffs, while after retraining it was $11.87 an hour, a decline that is common for factory workers who have to restart their lives.
U.S. Labor Department figures indicate that among the retrained, those that find new jobs end up making only 70 percent to 80 percent of their old wages on average.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Free trade is not free. It comes at a heavy price for those who can least afford it.
Yeah! Here's to a smaller taxable base!! I can't wait til' my taxes hit the roof because the median salary is on it's way to the bottom. I wonder how much we'll be paying in social services to cover the wage difference?
Free trade is government subsidized labor, pure and simple. Corporations see the benefit and taxpayers foot the bill, tell me how that is sustainable.
We must maintain some kind of low income job market for those who will never "rise to the occasion" or you'll get the very socialism you rail against ala taxing everyone else.
Free trade is government subsidized labor, pure and simple. Corporations see the benefit and taxpayers foot the bill, tell me how that is sustainable.
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Amazing how many people just do not understand this glaring fact. And the term "government subsidized" always equates to TAXPAYER subsidized...
Hey bob, you're still kind of new to the Freerepublic so I'm willing to cut you some slack. You're forgetting the rules. This is a conservative forum and we believe in freedom, self reliance, lower taxes, and smaller government. You've got to always remember that many poor conservatives will starve if the government doesn't tell the rest of us where to shop --that's why only a traitor would want his import taxes cut.
Pat Buchanan and his ilk do not like free trade.
In fact, Buchanan even wrote a piece on how "Reaganism and Thatcherism" exploits workers.
Somehow, I don't see how America would be better off in the long run if we paid $200 for a $65 pair of shoes because they are made in America or if a new "American made" computer costs $1800 at Best Buy instead of a foreign made one at $499.
People would be getting their shoes re-soled and keeping their existing computers longer.
Anti-free traders seem to think that Americans could continue their present consupmption even when the price of their goods quadruples.
I don't buy it.
Quote: Somehow, I don't see how America would be better off in the long run if we paid $200 for a $65 pair of shoes because they are made in America or if a new "American made" computer costs $1800 at Best Buy instead of a foreign made one at $499.
I really don't believe American made products are that much more. When a plant shuts down in America and moves to China I don't see the price of that item significantly dropping. Did Nike shoes lower their price from $85 for a pair of shoes to $35 when they shut down the memphis TN plant and move to Mexico??
Besides when the unemployeed factory worker gets laid off and has to take a lower paying job he has less money to spend. He may not even buy the product or service your company offers-putting your own livlyhood at risk. He may also be placed upon various gov't programs (job training, medical benefits) that cost more in taxes so the savings you benefited from buying offdshore is replaced with higher taxes and social cost.
You can make the exact same statement, fully justified, against capitalism in general. I work for a small company. What chance would I have in a government which gets to pick winners and losers, even more than they do now? We find our small niches. Protectionists are blind to companies such as the one I work for (a manufacturer by the way..which does some exporting of techology.) Small companies employ more people than the big names, if I'm not mistaken. The American steel industry took a big hit but learned enough to survive and prosper as a totally different industry. That's the answer, not turning to the demagogues.
True, this particular case involves sending U.S jobs to Mexico - but that makes the U.S. weaker nonetheless.
We will pay a terrible price in blood and treasure so that the free traitors can grasp themselves Michael Jackson style and simper about lower prices to consumers.
As if tariffs only effect non-American companies.
As if tariffs only effect non-American companies.
Our economy as well as the rest of the worlds has been propped up by the excess/hyper consumerism of the everyday Americans. One day those home equity loans and CC are going to be maxxed out...and watch out.
Though it is a waste of time since Corporate America owns the controlling interest in our government and through advertisement have brainwashed the sheep, it is worth repeating many,many times.
In a trade scenario with a socialist country, this is exactly what you get.
$17 plus benifits per hr for unskilled labor is the reason those jobs are leaving, not free trade. let's not forget, we have to compete with foriegn labor, free trade or not. We can't just seal the border and place tarriffs on everything comming in. Nothing will be comming in if we did that, and nothing would be going out either.
We can't sustain ourselves from within; I just don't know why some people just can't see that. We would become a soviet union, a closed society. Smart...
If companies are coerced into closing foreign factories that employ inexpensive workers and opening in the US where they face manditory health insurance laws, spiraling unemployment compensation and union wages, you don't think that prices would rise? If manufacturing costs make up 20 percent of the retail price, that means a $100 item costs $20 to manufacture. If you raise the price of manufacturing from $20 to $60-$80-$100, who is going to purchase the product? Pretty soon the unions will replace their "Buy American" slogan with ones that make people feel guilty for getting their appliances fixed, instead of purchasing new.
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