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The recession has proven to be a convenient excuse for many corporations to lay off American Workers and ship their jobs overseas. Ross Perot tried then to warn the people of what he knew was going to happen with the implementation of NAFTA, for which he was ridiculed at the time. I do not hear many people laughing now.
"1,100 FULL TIME JOBS LOST TO MEXICO, WHIRLPOOL LEAVING EVANSVILLE"
"LAKE MILLS, Iowa — Cummins Filtration in Lake Mills, Iowa, announced plans to cut about 400 jobs at the Lake Mills plant and shift them to San Luis Potosi, Mexico."
"On July 1, Electrolux opened its new plant in Juarez, Mexico. It is one of two plants expected to take over production when the company closes the world's largest refrigerator factory in Greenville early next year. The other is in Anderson, S.C.
Electrolux's shutdown of the Greenville plant at 635 W. Charles St. will leave more than 2,700 people without jobs."
"Eyewitness News is investigating vanishing jobs in the Triangle area. We've discovered 2007 is shaping up to be a bad year for people in the Triangle. By analyzing a state employment database, we've discovered that nearly a thousand people are losing their jobs to Mexico."
"As part of the restructuring, Avon has apparently decided that moving jobs to Mexico will save them a ton of money. Avon Products will eliminate 1,200 positions — 2.8 percent of its overall work force — by 2013 as part of a reorganization."
"Hershey to Cut 1,500 Jobs, Open Mexico Facility"
"On Tuesday, United Auto Workers (UAW) officials announced that auto parts-maker American Axle will close its Detroit-Hamtramck factory—the largest of its US facilities—and lay off between 500 and 600 workers. UAW officials claim these jobs are being moved to Mexico."
"Honeywell International Inc. is planning to move 5,000 aerospace division jobs offshore over the next five years, according to internal documents that outline the company’s global development strategy."
"Trade hawks hunting for the corporate villains behind the flight of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico might find General Electric a handy target.
In the 14 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement dismantled most barriers to trade and investment between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, GE has sent thousands of U.S. jobs making everything from refrigerators to electric meters to Mexico."
NAFTA is worthless, should have never been signed, and should immediatley be revoked.
It is single handedly responsible for the influx of illegal Mexican immigrants, and has a big hand in the loss of thousands of American manufacturing and agricultural jobs.
Dump NAFTA and institute countervailing tariffs to level the wage and environmental costs with Mexico, China and anywhere else with slave wages and dirty factories. We might as well start fighting back in this trade war.
So Mexicans are fleeing to America illegally for jobs, while jobs are being moved to Mexico?
the illegal immigrant jobs are jobs in which they pay no taxes, yet they receive direct free benefits from our health care system. illegal immigration depresses the wages of working americans by contributing to an oversupply of the work force.
as for NAFTA, it did destroy production in the united states. exports support jobs in the US, while imports displace domestic production AND jobs. under NAFTA we have had a trade DEFICIT, which has guaranteed our country a loss in manufacturing jobs.
So Mexicans are fleeing to America illegally for jobs, while jobs are being moved to Mexico?
Yes, and its not so odd as it seems though.
See, NAFTA allowed cheap US produce subsidized by the US government to enter Mexico. As Mexicos demand for corn rose, Mexican farms no longer could profitably produce corn to a level demanded internally. Farming is not only labor intensive, but picking vegetables is probably the least possible skilled job you can have. So millions of poorly skilled and dirt poor Mexicans found themselves without any labor prospects (because Mexican farms were not demanding new farm hands at the proportion of population growth), so, they went North, where they found welcome arms for illegal, cheap, labor.
The factories that are coming back to Mexico as part of NAFTA, tend to group around the same geographic areas, require some skills, and are not nearly as labor intensive on a whole as the agricultural jobs lost.
Corporations began outsourcing long before this recession started.
NAFTA has been in place 14 years now. The recession only increases the incentive for companies to relocate. With no plans on the drawing board to rebuild and revitalize American industry, there is no reason to believe this trend will change. If anything it will most likely accelerate. that is until U.S. wages fall to the point where they are "competitive".
Outsourcing is happening all over but not just to Mexico. If it was just to one place you could blame it on NAFTA, but what can you blame when it's off to India or Bangladesh or Malaysia?
Bottom line is corporations are in business to provide a return to their shareholders and that means driving costs down. Corporations have no obligation to employ Americans. Now that India and other countries are producing highly educated workers who will work for a fraction of the cost of an American, the choice is a no-brainer. All kinds of white collar jobs can now be handled overseas via the internet. A law firm can have an Indian paralegal working remotely, in the same way an accounting firm can have numbers crunched and e-mailed back and forth.
Almost none of the old manufacturing jobs will come back to the US. Those jobs are gone for good. Now we hear about worker retraining and I ask "retraining for WHAT?" Some low wage "service" job? A "green" job? Who is going to pay for all of these green initiatives that should have been started a long time ago? Our government is broke (and broken).
The future for America is bleak. We are all going to have to learn to make due with a fraction of the lifestyle we now enjoy. Wages will fall to the lowest common denominator. Large McMansions and big screen TVs will not be the norm 20 years from now.
Just about our only growth industry now is defense (and government) and how long can that last? Do we really want defense contractors selling their high tech wares to anyone who wants them?
Healthcare is one industry that can provide jobs for now, but there will come a time when funds just aren't there to pay for healthcare. Wages earners won't be able to afford most heathcare treatments, employers won't offer plans (they won't have to worry about attracting workers anyway) and the government won't be able to pay for it either.
As dismal as this is to digest, the cold reality is the good old days are behind us. I can only hope that we will somehow find a way to reinvent ourselves but I don't see very many encouraging signs.
*Disclaimer* I am just presenting the hard truth. Do I think corporations are soul-less entities who are destroying the very country that birthed their success? Absolutely. Do I think that the US government is now bought and sold by corporate interests? No doubt. Do I know the answer(s) to the monumental problems facing our country? No, but I do know that a good first step would be to clean house in CONgress.
Last edited by MovedfromFL; 08-28-2009 at 11:43 AM..
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