Trade agreements..
Our trade agreements haven't worked as promised. But trade agreements can be re-negotiated or
rescinded. We just have to be ready to pay the price. Good won't be cheap, inflation will soar, and consumers will be bitching agains. What really needs to happen to grow jobs here, raise wages is that stock holders have to become more active with their stock boards. We can make good quality stuff here and create more jobs with good wages BUT that means prices of goods will soar, stock dividends will have to decrease, and corporate profits will have to come down. Stockholders will have to stop expecting those huge returns on investments as profit margins for companies will necessarily go down. Of course, the government could always subsidize the stockholder profits and dividends...but then that would be capitalism, would it? We can close our markets to China and other countries forging our trade deficits...but then you have explain to the very people who are angry about trade agreements that Wal Mart is no longer the place to shop... and those cheap goods are no longer available.
In short, it's complicated. Realistically, since the consumer will never give up their cheap goods we have to come up with creating an economy of the future including the relevant training and education systems needed to fuel it. That is going to take time and no one that I know is patient. There is a future in building things to support a green environment and solar energy. We could invest in newer, cleaner, safer, and more efficient rapid transit and rail systems. Problem is, rail systems are largely privately owned...(here we go Ayn Rand). We could build all the parts to such systems right here in America instead of from manufacturers abroad. But who is going to do the work if our citizens are not educated or trained for working in those areas. Like I said, it's complicated.
But for sure, just yelling about how bad the trade agreements have been (and in some cases they have been good for many businesses) without planning on how to recover from them is not good enough. And just saying we need to keep the jobs here and buy America doesn't get it done either. WE need the investment, the knowledge, the unity, and the will to build our economy which is still better the most of the world's.
