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Issues analysis
How sad and how utterly abhorrent this is. Given current trends, I wonder how many more tragic stories resulting from this kind of cruel injustice there will be in days to come. How many stories of American children growing up in abject poverty, deprived of even their most basic needs; stories of families being driven from their homes with no place to go; and stories of marriages that fell apart due to intense financial pressure. I also wonder how many stories there will be about the devastating impact those divorces had on the lives of children in America. The reason I wonder is because this kind of job displacement is going to increase in days to come, unless something dramatic takes place to prevent it The 110th Congress has been wrestling with an immigration reform bill. Those supporting the bill say it would provide "cheap labor" as if that would unquestionably be a good thing. There is more involved with what I intend to touch on here, and the ramifications of those things are many, but due to space constraints I can only deal with some economic aspects of the problem. Where are men like James Madison when we need them today? The most basic and essential duties of the United States Congress are to guard against things that undermine the Constitution, chip away at national sovereignty, or threaten national stability and security. Nevertheless, at this point, we are facing a clear and present danger resulting from dereliction of duty on the part of our leaders. As much as I would like to place all the blame on liberals in the Democratic Party, the truth is that part of the blame rests upon people in the Republicans party. I'm speaking of people, many of whom still have the nerve to call themselves conservatives when even the term RINO will no longer suffice in describing them. They are well on their way to becoming full-fledged liberals, and President Bush has been leading the charge. The three-pronged plan of attack This essay is about a three-pronged plan of attack designed to diminish American sovereignty, strength, security, and stability. Regardless of how anyone voted, and as important as that information is, the problem goes much deeper than that. I am firmly persuaded that the amnesty bill is only one part of a plan to bring this nation down. What do I mean when I speak of a "three pronged" plan of attack? 1 — There is the latest immigration bill slated to return to the Senate floor for debate. Despite all the rhetorical subterfuge and denials, it is true that passage of the immigration reform Congress is wrestling with would, de facto, grant amnesty to anywhere from 12–20 million illegal immigrants. 2 — Then there is NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. This agreement has already contributed to economic problems that will have long-term negative impact on our nation. Don't be fooled by the fact that most of these negative effects have yet to materialize, because they are coming and I intend to show you why. 3 — In addition to NAFTA, now there is CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. I believe CAFTA is the more dangerous of the two. The consequences of these three things will virtually transform America — but not for the better. In facilitation of the trade agreements, a superhighway is to be built. The width of the highway is to be four hundred yards and it is known as "North America's SuperCorridor." It will run through several Mexican states and through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. Close your eyes for a moment and picture a highway as wide as the length of four football fields. Can you imagine that? Can you also imagine the mass displacement of people who will be driven from their homes to clear the way for this highway?!
A few pertinent details Let's take a quick look at a few aspects of the two free trade agreements before going any further. First of all, let's consider the words of current Republican presidential candidate Congressman Tom Tancredo, regarding CAFTA and some of its provisions.
What those provisions mean is that a foreign company would be empowered under CAFTA to challenge the validity of our immigration laws. If an international tribunal rules against us, Congress would then be forced to change our immigration laws or face international trade sanctions. These tribunals have the authority to rule that U.S. immigration limits, visa requirements, or even licensing requirements and zoning rules are "unnecessary burdens to trade" that act as "restrictions on the supply of a service." If CAFTA were really just about trade, the agreement would be little more than a few pages long, declaring that tariff treatment for U.S. and Central American goods will be on a reciprocal basis. But it isn't. In reality, CAFTA is about expanding a growing body of international law that supersedes our own. If CAFTA is approved, Congress' "exclusive" authority to regulate immigration policy will be subjugated to the whim of international tribunals and trade panels — in much the same way that Congress' once supreme constitutional authority to "regulate commerce with foreign nations," has already been largely ceded to the WTO [World Trade Organization]. [2] Now let's take a quick look at NAFTA before we move on. NAFTA has been in effect since 1994.
NAFTA's service-sector rules allowed big firms like Wal-Mart to enter the Mexican market and, selling low-priced goods made by ultra-cheap labor in China, to displace locally-based shoe, toy, and candy firms. An estimated 28,000 small and medium-sized Mexican businesses have been eliminated. Wages along the Mexican border have actually been driven down by about 25% since NAFTA, reported a Carnegie Endowment study. An over-supply of workers, combined with the crushing of union organizing drives as government policy, has resulted in sweatshop pay running sweatshops along the border where wages typically run 60 cents to $1 an hour. [3]
Meanwhile, authority contained in CAFTA will be transferred to various supranational and UN entities such as the Codex Alimentarius, the World Trade Organization, and the International Labour Organization. An international trade panel will have authority to override U.S. immigration laws and other laws that get in the way. The panel will be made up of one American and two Central Americans. This unequal balance of power will leave the U.S. at a disadvantage, as decisions are made that strip away our national sovereignty. And CAFTA will lead to the immigration of people from Central America with government sanction that will be sent specifically for the purpose working here. This will cause progressive displacement of American workers to facilitate the agendas of Central Americans. As we go forward from here, there are a couple of things I would like you to keep in mind. First, while the immigration reform bill has yet to be passed, the same cannot be said of NAFTA and CAFTA. Therefore, even if fewer immigrants are naturalized than the 12–20 million covered by the pending legislation, that fact will not prevent the things I'm talking about from coming about. The other thing to bear in mind is the fact that economically speaking, the term "shortage" doesn't mean "scarcity." It simply means there isn't enough of something to satisfy everyone. This having been said, now I will touch on some things that are being ignored because they would otherwise interfere with the plans of globalists. Cause and effect realities that cannot be ignored Proponents of the current immigration package say the bill will provide the American workforce with cheap labor. Many Americans think this will lead to lower prices and wonder what could possibly be wrong with that. However, application of a few basic economic principles begins to remove the gossamer covering of some of the hidden dangers of CAFTA and NAFTA. Regardless of how it all plays out, prices will go down temporarily at some point, as more immigrants come to America and imports come from other countries that will be too cheap for American companies to compete. This will take place for reasons I will get into shortly. Economic principles and the laws of nature Economics principles are like the laws of nature: there is no way to ignore them and get away with it. In his book, Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell speaks of rent control shortly after WW II having kept the cost of housing artificially low for an extended period of time. As a result, many young adults of college age who were still living with their parents could afford to rent an apartment. At the same time, people who were affluent rented a second and sometimes even a third house or apartment. In addition to this, couples without children were renting three and four bedroom units simply because they could afford to. All this produced a serious housing shortage, despite the fact that there were basically no more people in need of housing, and no less housing to go around than before. An economic principle came into play that is consistently true: lowering prices leads to market shortages. Given the level of immigration, both legal and illegal, brought about through amnesty and by virtue of CAFTA and NAFTA — combined with the cheaper imports I just spoke of — all this will eventually have an impact on the American marketplace that will be dramatic. Although much of it will not show immediately, the impact will indeed be negative, due in part to an unproductive economic cycle being set into motion. First, lower prices will lead to altered spending patterns that cause market shortages and significantly diminish what is available to the poor. If a shortage isn't severe enough to lead to black market activity, it can still lead to discriminatory behind-the-counter activities that will diminish the supply leftover for the average consumer.
Lower prices will also make it more difficult for those who produce some things to stay in business. If businesses cannot use cheap labor for some reason, they will not be able to price things competitively and still cover their costs. Therefore, many who aren't forced out of business will make changes and target a different market, catering only to those who are more affluent. At the same time, major increases in cheap labor and the cheaper imports will eventually cause prices that were originally lowered to rise. This is something else that will come about due to market shortages, as they create a greater demand than supply can keep up with. As all this is taking place, increasing numbers of Americans will lose their jobs, as they are displaced by foreign labor. Eventually, even businessmen who don't want to hire foreign workers will be forced to make the transition to avoid insolvency. The cost of doing business in the U.S. can only be brought so low, and there are only so many ways to do so. Eventually, the only way to compete with cheaper imports will be for Americans to drop standards pertaining to everything from wages, to quality control, to employee benefits, etc. Yet, even after all that has been done, it still won't be enough to make up the needed difference. Health, safety, and environmental regulations enforced by OSHA, the EPA, and other government agencies are already making things very difficult. This has forced many small business owners out of business who cannot — to give just one example — afford all the waste treatment required to operate since regulations have been tightened. They would face stiff fines for ignoring some of those regulations, and imprisonment for other violations. Because of CAFTA and NAFTA, in the future the same regulations will gradually make it difficult for all but the largest businesses and corporations affected by such regulations to survive amidst competition with imports from other nations. Many of those nations don't have such rigid regulations and safety standards, and because of CAFTA and NAFTA, they will no longer have to deal with import tariffs on things sent to America. In the final analysis, as time passes the number of American companies outsourcing jobs, the number of companies that have gone under, and the number of American workers displaced by immigrants will drive the unemployment rate in America right through the roof. The short term result of all this will be that people who are less than affluent will have to tighten their belts, and determine their needs and preferences more carefully. They will have to do without some things to avoid losing other things increasingly considered to be "luxuries," but which people simply aren't willing to do without. The long-term result will be something that has already happened in some European nations. All this will accelerate the rate at which America is moving toward becoming a society made up of only two classes — the very rich and the very poor. The political ramifications involved
In a society in which the middle class is being eliminated, eventually proletariats will outnumber the wealthy by a wide margin. The American system of choosing leaders by voting will give the poor an increasing advantage at the polls. However, the rich will never surrender their power and privilege in this nation. Therefore, in the long run, our government will have to be gradually transformed into something more resembling an oligarchy than the republic it once was. It might even undergo such massive change that for all practical intents and purposes, the U.S. Constitution will become obsolete. More causes of a major transformation We live in a society that is supposed to operate on the basis of the "free enterprise system" — that is, a system in which businesses operate competitively without government interference that goes beyond regulation to protect the public interest and keep the economy stable. As I've already mentioned, the key factors in such a system are supply and demand. Reliance on supply and demand is the only trustworthy means of determining how resources can be used most efficiently, and the only means of seeing to it that prices create a stable market. By contrast, subsidization by the government of large corporations has the effect of seeing to it that in the long run, prices will not cover the cost of production for at least some businesses. When this fact is ignored, smaller business owners end up taking the hit first. Unfortunately, full implementation of NAFTA and CAFTA will cause the severity of the problems created by government subsidization to increase exponentially. Gradually, even some of the larger businesses will find it difficult to survive as a result. Those businesses must cover production costs with prices determined by market conditions or they will possibly lose everything. There is no government cushion provided to cover them for problems created by abnormal fluctuations in the marketplace as there is with corporations subsidized by the government. Subsidization of large corporations interferes with the principle of incremental change that takes place when business is done normally, as gradual adjustments and substitutions are made due to changes in supply and demand. This is one of the things that lead to the development of abnormal market fluctuations and imbalances in supply and demand. But in every case, a day comes when something must begin to compensate for this. As much as politicians try and ignore these realities, there is no getting around them.
The problems created by this kind of activity don't show up right away, and politicians use that to their advantage. They create policies and programs like the current immigration reform bill, for example, and convince the public they have done something good when they are actually just catering to big business interests. Every time they do this, the real problems don't become evident for a while — and often by the time they finally come to light, the situation is at or near crisis level. The Savings and Loan crisis of the eighties was an example of this. The cost of the crisis is estimated to have been around $150 billion. About $125 billion of it was directly subsidized by the U.S. government. This contributed to large budget deficits in the early 1990s. Things like this create unnecessary needs that could have been avoided — needs that some politicians believe call for socialistic programs as a solution. However, for a variety of reasons, socialistic policies — while leading to everyone's needs being met in theory — have the opposite effect in practice. One of the reasons is that people who don't have to work for what they get are less responsible about consumption. Therefore, supplies and/or services become inadequate to meet people's needs, while at the same time the cost of doing business tends to skyrocket. This is because any time the government begins to pick up the tab for something — like healthcare, for instance — politicians and bureaucrats write rules and provisions into the system that aren't cost-effective. Let me give you one quick example of what I'm talking about. In facilities that care for the elderly and take patients in for rehabilitation, the maximum amount private insurance companies will pay runs from $250 to $350 per day. The people in charge of admissions in those facilities work hard to see that beds are filled with Medicare patients, because the federal government will pay in excess of $700 per day. The price of everything from supplies, to treatments, to therapy increases when the federal government is footing the bill. This is something that holds true with any industry involved. No one really cares about what the government pays. Therefore the government's cost of doing business rises steadily. Here again, the costs created by such practices must be made up somewhere. In the long run, it simply ends up being taken out of the pockets of hard working citizens. This is true regardless of whether it takes place in a free enterprise system or a command economy. Politicians are always trying to find a way to deal with societal problems and needs without facing realities that to them are inconvenient. Most of the problems aren't nearly as difficult to solve as they make it seem. But coming to conclusions that will provide real solutions requires an approach that doesn't ignore the need for realistic analysis and operation according to sound principles. In conclusion
A three-pronged plan of attack has been leveled against American sovereignty, strength, security, and stability that I believe was conceived in the very pit of hell. There are two things which must be done if we are to prevent the kind of destruction of our republic that I've been describing. First, we must work hard between now and November 2008 to see that more responsible people are voted into Congress and the Oval Office. Second, since I am persuaded that the origin of the plot is hell itself, I believe we need to cancel our dinner reservations, put on some sackcloth, and begin to pray. (Sackcloth is optional in modern times, but I'm sure you get the idea — this is serious!) Two of the three prongs in this plan of attack have already been approved by Congress, and as I said, stopping the immigration bill will not prevent what I've outlined here from happening — at most it will only delay the onset of some things. Unless something is done about NAFTA and CAFTA, and unless immigration is brought under control, we are in for big trouble. Rectifying the situation will be no small accomplishment. We need help that can only come from above.
[1] New American: Inviting Our Own Problems
By Kurt Hyde (Interview), 05–28 — 2007 http://www.jbs.org/node/3943
[2] RenewAmerica: Preamble to QOTW
Tom Tancredo on CAFTA http://www.renewamerica.us/forum/?date=050807&a=2
[3] Wikipedia: North American Free Trade Agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFTA#Impact_on_Mexican_farmers
RenewAmerica analyst Joshua Herring also writes a column for RenewAmerica.
© 2007 Joshua Herring
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In an article that I read recently, there was a tragic story. It filled my heart with sorrow to think of Americans devastated in the workplace by policies that exhibit an inexcusable lack of sensitivity and civic responsibility. This is the story of which I speak:
When I consider the most recent Supreme Court decision pertaining to eminent domain, I think, "How utterly convenient that is, and what a coincidence." This ruling permits local governments to seize homes and businesses for private projects that "promote economic development." This was a highly irregular decision by the Court, to say the very least, and it was certainly well-timed to facilitate the needs of those planning the "SuperCorridor." This highway is to provide not only truck routes entering the United States from Mexico; it will include both passenger and freight railroad lines that run alongside of oil and natural gas pipelines.
And this is, as they say in movie advertisements, "Coming soon to a theater near you!" What has been taking place in Mexico will work its way around to the U.S., and it will have a similar impact on the owners of small to medium-sized businesses. Please note that in what you just read — as wages went down, the price of at least some Mexican food staples rose dramatically. In addition to this, NAFTA has, by virtue of damage done to Mexican farmers and other business owners, driven hordes of illegal immigrants into America who will work for less money than American's do even after naturalization.
The impact all this will have on American business owners and the workplace
Nevertheless, poor people will invariably continue to vote for liberals, thinking they will fare better with them in office — when in fact, virtually everyone does better, poor people included, with politicians in office who are better stewards of government money than liberals tend to be. There is also another political factor that will eventually come into play, and the very thought of this breaks my heart.
The impact of all this on the government as a whole
If a balloon is squeezed roughly, it causes the displacement of air and enlarges the balloon. However, this sort of handling of a balloon can end up causing weak spots that will collapse the balloon eventually. Most balloons aren't meant to be handled that way, any more than the American government is meant to be handled the way our politicians handle it today. If they don't quit putting the squeeze on Americans and ignoring sound principles to further their political agendas, a day is soon to come when their balloon will . . . POP!!!
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