Posted on 01/27/2017 10:30:13 AM PST by VitacoreVision
Depends, imo. Lost manufacturing (GM) jobs replaced by more lower paying service (BK) jobs? More government/school jobs? More cheap import labor jobs? More part-time jobs?
Not really. In 1993, when NAFTA was agreed to, the rate of unemployment was 6.9%, It was 6.1% in 1994. The rate fell every year until reaching 4.0% in 2000.
Lost manufacturing (GM) jobs replaced by more lower paying service (BK) jobs?
Wrong again. The US had 17 million manufacturing jobs in 1994. It rose to 17.56 million in 1998 and was 17.25 million in 2000.
Real wages increased more in the 10 years after NAFTA than they did in the 10 years prior to NAFTA.
If NAFTA was as horrific as the economic doomers here want us to believe it was, you'd think we'd have felt the impact in the years immediately afterward. But that didn't happen. The economically challenged want to blame free trade agreements for everything that is wrong with out economy when simply cutting corporate taxes, eliminating regulations and putting a halt to the massive amount of litigation against industry would turn the US economy into a juggernaut. Trade makes an easy whipping boy but the problem is taxes, regulation and trial lawyers.
Absolutely agree with your last sentence.
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