Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Lies About Trade Agreements
GOP USA ^ | 7/24/2013 | Phyliss Schlafly

Posted on 07/25/2013 3:24:46 AM PDT by IbJensen

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last
To: Mad Dawgg

So where did the 10 Million manufacturing jobs go after they left the USA?


21 posted on 07/25/2013 10:26:36 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen

So the slave wages paid by the Commie Chinese had nothing to do with the exodus of Crony Caps to China. Agree about the tax/reg burdens in US but whose GD fault is that? Those 10 million manufacturing jobs exported represent one of the few stepping stones to joining and strengthening the Middle Class, the only group of people capable of defeating the Commie takeover! Look what ‘free’ aka Global Regulated Trade (World Bank, BIS, WTO, G20, etc.) has done. Don’t be trapped in a bogus world view. These are the days of eat or be eaten!


22 posted on 07/25/2013 10:35:41 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen; bert

Sorry IbJ, comment #21 & #22 were meant for Bert.


23 posted on 07/25/2013 10:39:07 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa

No jobs were exported.

Plants closed because American workers were not competitive on the world market. Had the manufacturing not been moved, the jobs would have been lost because the place went broke.

That happened in England when the textiles industry moved to New England. It happened again when New England was deserted and the textile industry moved to the Carolinas. It is gone from there now for the same reason. Americans just were not competitive.

You speak of jobs as an object. Jobs are labor. Labor is a commodity to be purchased at a competitive rate.

When you begin to think in terms of Chicaps, you will begin the process of enlightenment.

Dwelling in an anomalous past is to live in the dark


24 posted on 07/25/2013 10:47:19 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa
"So where did the 10 Million manufacturing jobs go after they left the USA?"

First you need to deal with the assumption that they actually left the country.

So if Manufacturing Output for the USA is increasing BUT Manufacturing Jobs are decreasing are these Jobs being sent elsewhere OR are they being eliminated with technology and robotics and increased efficiency?

25 posted on 07/25/2013 10:59:03 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: SAJ
Are you saying you want to pay higher Panamanian taxes on American goods, and you want Americans paying higher US taxes on Panamanian coffee/chocolate/bananas?

that is NOT all there is to it,

We agree that we're talking about import taxes (even though it's not all there is to it) and we understand that I want lower taxes and I understand you disagree with me on something but you don't want to answer my question.  So even though I'm still not following your thinking we have come quite a ways here.

26 posted on 07/25/2013 10:59:28 AM PDT by expat_panama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: bert

Chicaps?


27 posted on 07/25/2013 11:02:57 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen
American Jobs and industries disappearing due to NAFTA

America has more jobs and industries since NAFTA began than before.

28 posted on 07/25/2013 11:06:35 AM PDT by expat_panama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mad Dawgg

Yep you are right about the mfg output having risen, assuming that this compares apples to apples. Output could be final product value/price but the many parts of the final product are mfg’d in other countries, (aircraft, automobiles, etc). The manufacturing jobs/employees have been replaced w/ low paying service jobs or w/ welfare...the perfect storm for civil chaos.


29 posted on 07/25/2013 11:11:58 AM PDT by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa

Sometimes jobs vanish without moving overseas.

How many buggy-whip manufacturers went belly-up?


30 posted on 07/25/2013 11:13:48 AM PDT by GeronL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa
...manufacturing jobs/employees have been replaced w/ low paying service jobs or w/ welfare...

Since 1975, average inflation adjusted personal incomes have doubled even while the number of American manufacturing workers has fallen by a third:


31 posted on 07/25/2013 11:26:21 AM PDT by expat_panama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa
"The manufacturing jobs/employees have been replaced w/ low paying service jobs or w/ welfare...the perfect storm for civil chaos."

Actually many of those jobs have been replaced by machines.

A couple of real life examples for you.

In a manufacturing plant located in Indiana they made parts for a FORD car AC unit one of the parts was a valve. Now when they started making this part the line had 12 people on it. After a few years the line was upgraded with a machine.

The machine replaced 10 of the people on the line. You literally could have one guy dump the raw material in one end, and at the other end a guy picked the parts up and put them in a box. Now I am told the guy at the end doing the boxing has been replaced as well. 11 jobs lost to automation on one line of one plant. There were multiple lines just like that one in the very same plant lost to the same automation.

BUT the unions will all cry about outsourcing because they can make Americans think someone else is getting the jobs when in truth they are being eliminated due to tech and efficiency. But its a hard argument to make that we need to toss our wooden sabots into the machines so Union Workers can have cushy jobs.

In a Kenworth plant a few miles northwest of where I live I was employed for a short time "grinding" the rough spots off of fiberglass truck tops. When this plant upgraded to newer process the need to grind these trucktops diminished to nearly zilch. Most of the section I was in was eliminated because they manufacturing process became more efficient.

This is the dirty little secret of US manufacturing. And many times unions will fight the implementation of these newer more efficient manufacturing techniques because their membership diminishes.

Yes there are factories that relocate. Locally there was a strike over a contract that finally sent about 400 jobs to Mexico. These jobs could've stayed here but the Union would not relent and the law in Ohio is that if a union gets its fingers into a company they can never get them out yet there were twice as many people for those 400 jobs that would have gladly worked the contract offered by the plant. So tell me, who sent those particular jobs to Old Mexico? Unions are stuck on stupid the reality of 21st Century America is that manufacturing jobs are shrinking and its easier for a company to either leave OR eliminate jobs by using newer tech.

This trend will continue until sanity is restored in the American Business landscape.

32 posted on 07/25/2013 11:35:28 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa

Chicaps are Chinese capitalsts. They are ascendnet and the face of change


33 posted on 07/25/2013 12:18:43 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: expat_panama

Why is it, expat, that everything we buy comes from China or Korea?

Even many production line parts for the ‘Big Three’ come from Asia.

And another thing. Many products that are labeled ‘Mexico’ are shipped from China to Mexico then reshipped to the United States.

You’re not, by any chance, engaged in import are you?


34 posted on 07/25/2013 4:06:15 PM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa

As we say down on the friendly border with our neighbor to the south: no problemo.


35 posted on 07/25/2013 4:07:09 PM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa

Two things are going to have to be done. There are more, but that will have to come after the revolution.

1. Eliminate the corporate income tax.

2. Take a meat axe to all regulatory agencies of the central socialist government.


36 posted on 07/25/2013 4:08:48 PM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: IbJensen
It's all about corporate taxes and regulation.

Free trade never creates an unlevel field, corporate taxes and excessive regulation do. We have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world, and that puts our businesses in a disadvantage from the get-go.

37 posted on 07/25/2013 4:16:44 PM PDT by Partisan Gunslinger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: iopscusa
It's not a question of "free trade" vs. "protectionism." The real issue here is that an awful lot of people (including Phylis Schlafly, the author of this piece) never seem to understand that economic objectives are often completely at odds with each other, and it's impossible for a nation to meet all of them simultaneously.

The whole discussion about "free trade" largely revolves around the competing underlying objectives of: (1) maximizing U.S. employment in certain industries, and (2) improving the overall standard of living in the U.S. Where you fall on the issue of "free trade" is really a function of which of these two objectives you're looking to meet.

There are additional issues that come into play, too. Here's a good case in point from the original article:

Remember NAFTA? The year before NAFTA, the U.S. ran a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico. Last year, the U.S. ran a $64 billion deficit.

What the author doesn't point out is that these enormous "trade deficits" with Mexico involve imports that have tremendous value to the U.S. According to U.S. trade statistics, total imports from Mexico into the U.S. were about $278 billion in 2012. The single largest product or raw material in these trade statistics is crude oil ($37B). Since NAFTA was passed in the early 1990s, Mexico and Canada have surpassed Saudi Arabia as the largest foreign suppliers of oil to the U.S. Is Ms. Schlafly -- or anyone here on FreeRepublic -- going to suggest that this is somehow a BAD thing?

The second-largest import from Mexico into the U.S. for 2012 was auto parts and accessories ($32B), which was almost twice the value of new/used cars ($17B). Most of these parts and accessories support the production of automobiles right here in the U.S. How is this a problem, especially if the sourcing of these parts and components from Mexico enables auto plants here in the U.S. to compete effectively with foreign manufacturers?

38 posted on 07/25/2013 5:37:10 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Soul of the South
The single biggest factor in the loss of manufacturing and "middle class" jobs in the U.S. is not foreign trade -- it's automation. Anyone who thinks the U.S. economy would still be dominated by large-scale manufacturing with thousands of employees working in Rust Belt plants were it not for "free trade" is delusional. Many of those jobs were going to disappear, one way or another.
39 posted on 07/25/2013 5:41:09 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

“The single biggest factor in the loss of manufacturing and “middle class” jobs in the U.S. is not foreign trade — it’s automation. “

Textile, apparel, furniture making, and many consumer products assembly jobs did not disappear due to automation. Walk through any Walmart. Most of the consumer products sold in the store are not highly automated in production. If they were, the factories would be in the US and not China.


40 posted on 07/25/2013 7:30:25 PM PDT by Soul of the South (Yesterday is gone. Today will be what we make of it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson