How Free Trade Is Killing Middle America

The American Conservative ^ | Jan. 24, 2014 | Patrick J. Buchanan

[Carry_Okie]

Outsourced industry is a result of hostile business conditions that have systematically forced American Manufacturing to foreign (more importantly, less regulated and taxed) sources.

Correct.

Chief among them are onerous EPA regulations, onerous Labor relations, high taxation and high cost of serviceable infrastructure. Mostly political reasons as higher government spending and associated costs just force higher and higher taxation.

Guess who funded the lawsuits to "force" those regulations? It was tax-exempt "charitable" foundations belonging to the investors seeking to profit from moving production overseas, cloaking themselves in "reducing global poverty" while making an artificially inflated profit.

Other reasons are now coming into play as our education system continues to dumb down the work force

Guess who has funded the destruction of the next generation? It was Rockefeller who funded Kinsey and Carnegie and Ford who funded "educational reform."

[Age of Reason]

There is a new economy coming, not based so much on mass production, but rather mass information.

Please explain . . . if you can.

[Count of Monte Fisto]

I not saying that ending Free Trade would be a panacea but with jobs and money coming in we would have the means to solve those other problems. With jobs and money we could afford those higher prices. Without jobs and wealth creation we are dead in the water.

[Hardastarboard]

If we want to bring manufacturing back to America we can only do it through regulatory and tax reform.

Exactly, perfectly correct.

[OneWingedShark]

>> There is a new economy coming, not based so much on mass production, but rather mass information.
>
> Please explain . . . if you can.

With the advent of cheap 3D printing there’s a huge increase of ‘producers’.
Because of Supply & Demand, this means that much production will become cheap — the thing that will go up in demand are people who understand and can use information, already a valuable commodity, which will create a demand for readily accessible information.

[cyn]

Iow, *IT’S OUR FAULT*.

Laughable if not so darn sad on so many levels (as comments show).

[1rudeboy]

It is our fault. We elect these bozos, and they go to DC and tell us we can't use wood-burning stoves (and spend $1.40 for every $1.00 we give them).

I read somewhere that Sweden now has stronger protection of private property than the U.S.

[Count of Monte Fisto]

There is a new economy coming, not based so much on mass production, but rather mass information.

I've been hearing that same garbage for over twenty years. It Hope-y and Change-y nonsense.

[central_va]

Well, one aspect of Free Trade is that while “Fruit of the Loom” left Oklahoma and other parts of the south, underwear is still very affordable.

So are you one of those economic idiots that think if we made underwear in the USA they would cost $10.00 a pair? What poppy cock; how much labor do think goes into a pair of skivies?

[Age of Reason]

You missed my point.

I wasn’t defending some need to continue free trade.

Rather, I was proposing a reason the disaster of free trade was foisted on us and continues to be foisted on us.

[central_va]

The purpose of 'Free Trade' has always been to destroy the American Middle-class.

Just read what Karl Marx said about free trade.

[cripplecreek]

I also think its time to start cutting taxes at the bottom. Things like payroll and income taxes. The insane way we tax manufacturing has got to go as well.

I think it would be a winner with the people across the board. After all, how can idiots protesting for a higher minimum wage oppose taking less out of their paychecks?

[1rudeboy]

Marx said that free trade would destroy the middle class. Good to see Marxists on this thread.

[crusher2013]

So what do you do with the bottom 50% who can’t adapt?

You either provide jobs or welfare to them. It’s much better to find work for them to do.

[central_va]

onerous Labor relations,

I'd like to check you knowledge in this area:

What is the percentage of manufacturing workers in the USA are in a union?

1. 10%
2. 50%
3. 70%
4. almost all

[Age of Reason]

Maybe this is a better way to say it:

They push free trade on us so they can print money with abandon and not cause inflation.

[Beagle8U]

” The tombstones of countless dead towns across America should read: Killed by Free Trade.”

Killed by unions and automation.

[central_va]

If everything were made in America again, no one using today’s dollars could afford to buy anything made in America.

That is ABSOLUTLRY NOT TRUE. Labor is just one component in manufacturing, one of the smallest too.

[central_va]

Marx said that free trade would destroy the middle class. Good to see Marxists on this thread.

I studied Soviet Naval tactics extensively when I was in the US Navy so does that make me a Communist? Know your enemy is my motto.

[Mad Dawgg]

What amazes me about these threads is that eventually everyone admits what is hurting manufacturing jobs in the USA is government intervention in the markets (EPA, Taxes, OSHA, etc.) But then the Unionistas cry that the only way to fix the problem is:

wait for it...

wait for it...

wait for it...

MORE government intervention in the markets!