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"Soon extended unemployment benefits will cease and 2 million Americans will have to dip into their savings, if they have any.
This is an outgrowth of the effects of free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. We have lost 8.5 million jobs over the last ten years to this destructive process.
We have seen more than 42,000 manufacturing plants leave the country as well.
There are now more than 17 million Americans unemployed and the U6 official government unemployment figures 17%. If you remove the bogus birth/death ration, the real figure is 22-5/8%.
Over that ten-year period we have lost about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs or about 1/3rd of that labor force.
As recent as 1985, 25% of output was in manufacturing, now it is close to 11%.
America’s physical infrastructure is in a shambles, so that transnational conglomerates can bring us cheap goods to suppress inflation and bring these companies mega-profits, which they keep stored offshore to bypass taxation.
They presently have $1.7 trillion in such profits."
Government sector is growing. There is a correlation between them. When government grow, private sectors shrink. Simple as them. For those who pro government, please list any country in the history that big government also has a big private sectors.
Originally NAFTA was the brainchild of Ronald Reagan who was strongly supportive of a North American free trade area.
However, it was the first President Bush, George H.W., who signed the official NAFTA agreement with Mexican President Salinas and Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney in 1992.
It was ratified by all three countries’ legislatures in 1993 and passed into
law.
The NAFTA agreement creates the largest free trading block in the world in terms of GDP. As of January 1, 2008, all tariffs between the three countries have been eliminated.
WHEN DID NAFTA BEGIN? | Truth-It (http://www.truth-it.net/when_did_nafta_begin.html - broken link)
What is good for one company is not good for all of them. If one company sends it's manufacturing jobs over seas then it makes more money. If they all send their jobs overseas then they all loose money. It is the difference between micro and macro. The job of the government should be to balance what is good for one person or a small but powerful group of people against the good of everyone. That went out the door in 1981 with Reagan.
We need it back.
1975 was the last year we were a net exporter after dominating post WW2 international trade for decades. Carter retained a number of export related jobs with a weak dollar strategy, but we all paid for those jobs with ever higher prices and economic stagnation (see Caternomics). Reagan gave us the bitter medicine we needed by reining in the money supply and took the political heat for doing so. By 1984 we had seen the record low Carter dollar replaced by the strongest US dollar on record. The economy boomed, and we experienced the longest sustained peace-time economic expansion of the US economy without a recession in our history.
The United States Misery Index By Year (http://www.miseryindex.us/customindexbyyear.asp - broken link)
First NAFTA in 1993 and then the China Trade Bill in 2000, bye, bye middle class America.
The Elites, directing the poor is all that is left.
BentBow !!! ... Excellent Post !
Indeed I well remember that thar "Lil" Bloke" called Ross Perot who gave Americans such a dire warning about "NAFTA" and the gigantic sucking sound we would hear as American Industry & Jobs left the country if NAFTA ever received approval ... Don't You Remember ??? Certainly some folks must remember !
Mr. Perot ran as an Independent that year and even though he was unsuccessful in his run for the Presidency it was truly unbelievable how the DINO's & RINO's literally "Chewed This Lil' Guy Up & Spit Him Out" over his so called fear mongering regarding the absolutely wonderful NAFTA Act !
How Dare Mean Old Ross Say Those Things Against NAFTA !
I can still recall the wild celebrations, dancing, singing, back slappin, and attaboys that were partricipated in by the all wise politicians and big business buddies of those years when NAFTA was passed !!!
Well folks .... It Appears that Mr. Perot was indeed a prophet afterall !!!
How absolutely tragic it is that the American People of today cannot proudly build everything their nation could possibly need within American owned & operated industries ...( just like we did not so long ago) !
And we didn't need one damn thing imported from Japan or China !
I still remember the proud folks who wept when they lost their jobs because the mighty steel mills in Pittsburg Penn. closed so all the cheaper steel could be made in Japan and then sold back to the U.S.
It's without a doubt a disaster on an unprecedented scale for America !
Yes NAFTA has truly been marvelous has it not ?
How can we ever hope to re-instill great National Pride, Honor, Loyalty, & Order to American Society when our dynamic people are quickly losing the vastly important circumstances which instills these very qualities that perpetuate a Proud & Free people ?
It won't be very long until the American People will arise one morning and discover that the American Automobile Industry will be long gone ...
Is this what the American People So Desire ... Is it ?
There is nothing the American people cannot acheive in America...on "American Soil " ! In my humble opinion it is not too late for the American Citizen to determine what direction he or she decides this beloved nation should move ... "Made In America" sounds mighty damn good to a whole bunch of good old folks !!!
May It Be So !!!! / Thanks "Y'ALL" / Old Sgt. Lamar
Sorry........please tell me you understand how ridiculous that statement is! Some how you actually believe that a person should get free money from the government, when they have money in savings ?!?!
And do you understand how unemployment works? In many states you pay into(hence the term unemployment insurance).
If you get laid off you qualify for UE benefits. Doesn't matter if you have a $5 in the bank or $50k in the bank. You're the one who is ridiculous.
People who planned better and saved shouldn't get unemployment? Just the people who spent everything they earned.
1975 was the last year we were a net exporter after dominating post WW2 international trade for decades. Carter retained a number of export related jobs with a weak dollar strategy, but we all paid for those jobs with ever higher prices and economic stagnation (see Caternomics). Reagan gave us the bitter medicine we needed by reining in the money supply and took the political heat for doing so. By 1984 we had seen the record low Carter dollar replaced by the strongest US dollar on record. The economy boomed, and we experienced the longest sustained peace-time economic expansion of the US economy without a recession in our history.
UrbanDigs: Peak Credit & What That May Mean This link shows a graph that illustrates the total debt in percent of GDP. The curve went vertical in 1981. That longest sustained peace time expansion of the US economy in history that you are referring to was nothing more than a large debt bubble, the biggest debt bubble in history. Now we are paying the price for it. Our manufacturing base is gone, our savings is gone, and we are looking at defaulting on our national debt. Reagan was the most financially irresponsible president ever.
Sorry........please tell me you understand how ridiculous that statement is! Some how you actually believe that a person should get free money from the government, when they have money in savings ?!?!
Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Do you actually think that if someone is collecting unemployment benefits, that he/she has no savings at all?
I voted for Perot back in the day. He was right and more people should have listened.
People keep crying about offshoring but are unwilling to do what it takes to bring businesses back here, and that's to lower/eliminate corporate income tax. We have the second highest CIT in the world and are only behind Japan in that department. What corporation would WANT to set up shop here only to see over 1/4th of their profits go to the government.
We need to lower it to 12% or lower to stay competitive. And, while we're at it, eliminate the loopholes so that we don't end up with some companies paying 0.
Democrats aren't fond of creating a business friendly environment though, so I'm not hopeful that anything like this will ever get passed. There is such vitriol towards corporations from the left, but then they cry and whine that those evil businesses are leaving the US. Can't have it both ways... either you lower the CIT rates and entice corporations to come here, or you keep the rates or raise them and continue to watch the jobs disappear.
Lowering the corporate income tax would certainly be a great first step, but those three job-killing entities known as unions, environmentalists and trail lawyers would also have to be marginalized, or have their respective levels of influence dramatically curtailed; outsourcing is not about to go away as long as they continue to run amock.
On top of that, our immigration policies indefensibly mandate foreign-born students who come here to get a degree at any of our world-class universities must return to their homeland to start their businesses as opposed to starting them here, and putting Americans to work.
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Remember When : Proudly Made In America !!!
Some how you actually believe that a person should get free money from the government, when they have money in savings ?!?!
