Posted on 09/30/2016 4:32:46 AM PDT by expat_panama
...Trump called the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States “the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country” during the first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton. Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders leveled a similar criticism, calling it disastrous when debating the former secretary of date...
...But whether NAFTA has been good or bad for the U.S. economy depends largely on who you ask...
...NAFTA “means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement,” then-President Clinton said in 1993.
Fast forward more than two decades later and NAFTA is rallying cry for those who believe free trade has done more for other countries than for American workers...
...Trump has promised to renegotiate NAFTA’s terms “to get a better deal for our workers,” according to his campaign site. If that doesn’t work, he vows to withdraw from the agreement altogether.
Clinton doesn’t address NAFTA specifically on her campaign site, but promises to “reject trade agreements that don’t meet “her high standard...
...According to one widely cited analysis, NAFTA has been a bad deal...
...The late ‘90s was a period of strong economic growth...
...if the U.S. economy did so well after NAFTA, is there any reason to think the trade agreement was harmful?...
...The report questioned whether the gains in trade under NAFTA were enough to offset the struggles of displaced workers and recommended that future agreements include stronger provisions to protect U.S. workers exposed to foreign competition.
But it may be too late for those Americans who have already lost their jobs to overseas competition and have been unable to enjoy the fruits of the larger and more efficient economy. Those workers are the ones who may use their votes this November as a referendum on free trade.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefiscaltimes.com ...
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.
The difference is I’m not stupid enough to believe it will bring about a revolution by the proletariat. Marx was wrong about that. Like you, he was wrong about many things. It should bother you that you share so much ideology with Lenin and Marx, but you’d have to have two synapses to rub together to realize the idiocy of your statements.
Since Reagan we have had unmitigated "Free Trade". We are $19T in debt. An open socialist was running for President and taken seriously. A camouflaged socialist is running for the Presidency. Our manufacturing sector is down 12,000,000 jobs and the trade deficit is $800B/year. All the evidence points to the fact the fact that Marx was prescient.
I am in PA, but routinely travel throughout the rust belt, small town after small town have been left in blight with social services overwhelmed and collapsing... I see it time and time again, yes, in MICHIGAN as well.
I have watched town after town decay similar to what this article reports about Reading PA... MI has a lot of these towns too, and if you think otherwise you aren’t paying attention.
By the way, you need to learn the meaning of this word because it doesn't mean what you think it does.
I don't care if you and your fellow Bolsheviks believe that Marx was prescient while waiting for your revolution. Just keep your hands out of my wallet.
Like Ron White says....
I’ve lived in the Rust Belt all of my life. And my jobs have always been in jeopardy. Never looked to Uncle Sugar to save them, ever. I suppose that I don’t have the mindset for it.
Defend the status quo and the income tax at the same time deride tariffs but I wouldn’t expect any different from a globalist hack.
Wow. Mase is defending the income tax? You are pathetic.
Your kind gave us the federal income tax. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Big government conservatives suck.
He’s probably on his second six pack at this point and is just making it up as he goes. He’s nothing more than an attention getting device.
A 20% tariff would balance the budget tomorrow.
Patriots know what is best for the USA and maybe you should listen and learn history instead of making it up.
The Republican Party was THE Tariff Party and should be so again. Globalists like you should go over to the Democrats where you would be more comfortable. Obama is the the spokesman for "free trade" and TPP. We don't need two globalist socialist parties.
And it’s Silly Season—all bets are off.
Before NAFTA, in the rural region that I grew up in....within fifty miles, there were hundreds of small manufacturing operations....some were just a dozen people....some were a couple hundred. Most people graduating high school could depend on a job being there and giving them some start in life.
Today, within that same circle...the bulk of those $10 to $15 an hour jobs are gone. The jobs that do still exist...are on the bare threads and the guy is likely lucky to make $10 to $12 an hour....for what was normal pay 20 years ago but the cost of living is double what it was 20 years ago.
I’m wondering where this “larger and more efficient economy” is at.
Exactly. And Trump is going to dominate the Rust belt... I can drive 100s of miles from where I live in Pittsburgh all the way to upper MN and find town after town with the exact same story.
It has been the Republicans idiotic and nearly religious following of the Free Trade dogma, which is not conservative at all, that has prevented them from making the rust belt as solidly red as the south.
If Republicans don’t squander it, this election could be the beginning of the long long overdue realignment of these states for generations.
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