USA Today slams NAFTA haters (China, not Mexico and Canada, to blame for job losses)

[algoreagain]

Today a USA Today editorial board says that NAFTA and the countries involved in it, namely Mexico and Canada, have had "relatively little to do with either the overall job losses or job gains" in the last decade.

The paper notes that manufacturing output has actually increase, but it has been the outsourcing of jobs that has created this job loss.

The reality is that NAFTA has relatively little to do with either the overall job losses or job gains. China is a far larger factor. But the number that best displays the nonsensical nature of the debate is 66% — the increase in the manufacturing output of American industry since 1993.

But to make NAFTA a centerpiece of the debate over the manufacturing economy is cheap pandering. Modifying or scrapping NAFTA wouldn't create jobs or more skilled workers. The idea raises false hope and seeks to scapegoat Mexico and Canada.

...

The only real answer to the problem of declining employment in manufacturing lies in educating younger workers and retraining older ones. This is, to be sure, a big challenge and a tough sell politically. American schools continue to underperform, particularly in technical knowledge. And most federal retraining programs have failed.

Sherrod Brown from Iowa was allowed to expressed his opposite view on NAFTA.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/02/opposing-view-6.html

[Johnny__Motown]

1. and China is now building factories in Mexico to take advantage of NAFTA,

[JDPriestly]

2. Sherrod Brown is from Ohio.

"Educating younger workers and retraining older ones" Blame the victims of bad policies. NAFTA is the symbol for all the bad trade agreements. It may not be as harmful as our deals with China, but that is not the point. The point is that NAFTA was entered into while Bill Clinton was president. NAFTA is not the only trade agreement that needs review. The agreements with China and India and some other countries are worse and must also be renegotiated if we are to survive as an economically viable democracy.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. The so called "pro-trade" forces on DU and the media equate ALL TRADE w/ elimination of all tariffs

When our grandchildren are old, capitalism will mean the elimination of all taxes, competition as a means to total market dominance (sort of like Marx's theory of the dictatorship of the working class being merely a means to the end of a stateless society and gradually "withering away", competition is set up with the intention of "withering away" as the most successful business models destroy or acquire each other) and total slave society. We will end up with a global oligarchy of multinational corporations that exist on such a rarefied plane that nation-states come and go and these corporations remain, like feudalism or the Vatican. The definition of free market capitalism keeps CHANGING as the corporate fascists, who want no taxes on corporations, get more and more power.

You will hear it over and over again on DU: Tariffs are bad and hurt the efficiency of multinational corporations who are able to employ more people worldwide by paying them less overseas and offsetting lower domestic wages with cheaper products imported from abroad, thus preventing full employment (which free trade policy is set up to PREVENT) AND preventing inflation by decreasing wages domestically to keep pace with Mexico, China, India and Brazil (the model of the new economy) as the dollar loses power abroad.

[JDPriestly]

7. It's called feudalism. That is where we started, and that is where

the multinationals and their Saudi investors want to take us.

[FARAFIELD]

3. Why are they such

NAFTA HATA's

been waiting to say that@@88.80.13.160 .88.80.13.160 .!

[Forkboy]

5. Did they have graphs to prove it?

;)

[otohara]

6. FTTA, ASEAN, NAFTA, MEFTA, APEC. CAFTA-DR, WTO

NAFTA is just one of our trade problems. http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Section_Index.html

[Vinca]

8. The trade agreements, in general, are turning this nation into a third

world country. Whenever they tout an increase in jobs, they never mention the quality of the jobs. There's a big difference between a factory worker operating a machine and that same worker flipping a burger. Like $20 an hour in difference plus loss of benefits. Wages are going down, the cost of existing is going up.

[dcindian]

9. USA shows us just how little they understand

NAFTA argument is a surrogate for the larger trade issues. The two candidates are using NAFTA as a surrogate because it is easily recognizable and it is directly associated with Clinton's Plagiarized experience.

[DainBramaged]

10. End Asian protectionism and you'll see trade barriers fall

We can't do shit with China or Japan, but they can ship or manufacturer what ever they want here.

Maybe we should put a 50% tariff on all imported goods until we're treated fairly.

[AdHocSolver]

11. The multinational corporations alone are responsible for job losses in the U.S.

They pushed through NAFTA and all the other trade agreements that made it profitable to offshore American jobs.

It is foolish to blame Mexico, or Japan, or China. It is the corporations who are impoverishing America.

Another piece of nonsense is that retraining workers or educating workers in "new" technologies will produce jobs in the U.S. What types of jobs could Americans train for that the corporations can't or wouldn't train Chinese workers to do for less money? The corporations trained the Chinese and built their factories in China for the "old" technology, and you think they wouldn't do the same for any "new" technology?

The only failing of American education is that the schools don't teach enough economics so that Americans could understand how this country is getting royally screwed by the corporations.

The ONLY action to save this economy is to impose tariff quotas and import duties on all low-wage imported merchandise that can be manufactured in the U.S. In other words, force manufacturing back to the U.S. to stop the huge trade deficits that are undermining the value of the dollar and setting the world up for a catastrophic worldwide depression.

Americans have to decide whether they are going to accept this corporate blather or demand action that will actually do some good. NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, etc. are NOT free trade agreements. They are agreements between corporate cartels designed to control the world's economy for their exclusive profit. The corporations have no interest in manufacturing anything in the U.S. That is why they close factories here as they build and operate factories in China and India. Understand that as more Americans sink into poverty, markets for goods will shrink here at the same time that those newly working Chinese will be making money to buy the goods they are now manufacturing. The corporate ledgers will still show a profit on Chinese sales even if America is bankrupt.

You can retrain yourself all you want. Whatever certificate you get won't get you any better job than hamburger server, since the corporations do not need or want to manufacture anything in the U.S.