When Nixon went to China, it was with great hopes for openning up the "China market" to America exports. What has happenned is openning up the "America market" to Chinese exports. That has to qualify as one of history's all time greatest goofs.
The point I see none of the free trader ideologues addressing is the extremely pertinent one Buchanan makes about the decline of the GOP. With the decline in living standards for most Americans due to free trade, the age of GOP landslides is over. As he wisely notes, Hillary is realizing that there is more political capital in an economic populism that talks about preserving American jobs and industries than in sodomite marriage. Kerry backed off from running on economic populism and that is why he lost Ohio (Guess what ? The Democrats understand that now.). If the GOP in 2008 continues the Bush open borders free trade policies, get ready for New Deal II.
The best metaphor in my mind for the drop in American living standards, is the fact that adjusted for inflation, a category of car pretty much costs the same as it did in 1970. Only then the car loans were three years. Now they are six. And those were cars build entirely by high paid unionized factory workers, not low paid Mexicans and Chinese as now.
Nothing seems to indicate that all.
Nixon also wanted a counter to Russia. The trade problem became fully swing when Congress and Bush made China a permanent favored trading nation. Giving factory shippers the big go-ahead.
So it remains, where are the good paying jobs in this country that free-trade shills promised would replace the low-paying jobs traded away?
Free trade shills - do some reporting. Check your local newspaper. Tell us what are the big job needs are in your area? Mine are automotive and truck driving.
Never forget that Nixon WAS a CROOK!!
That's a lot of nonsense. When adjusted for inflation and technology, cars are actually much cheaper today than they were in 1970. If you were to build a 1970-vintage automobile today in a mass-production process, you'd probably be able to sell it for about $5,000.
The reason a new car costs more today (in terms of purchasing power of the average U.S. worker) than in 1970 isn't a decline in our standard of living -- it's the exponential growth in high-tech components on these cars. Think of all the things that are standard equipment on cars today that didn't even exist back in 1970. And then add to it the fact that just the computing power in a car today was only available in a mainframe computer back then -- which means that by today's standards your 1970-vintage automobile would have to be a dump truck just to carry the equivalent of today's electronic components.