[central_va]

The Clinton Administration’s two flagship trade agreements (NAFTA and PNTR ) were misrepresented to the American people as bringing millions of jobs and higher prosperity to the United States. History and reality regarding these policies now show that they debased and destroyed U.S. manufacturing and the private sector.

[central_va]

ping

[sickoflibs]

Don’t forget automation and computerization.

Many millions of jobs replaced by computers and computer guided mechanics, like self checkouts at stores.

And who designs them??

Immigrants from India and China who get their degrees here.

[DugwayDuke]

In 1870, 70% of the US population were farmers. In 2008, only 2%. Should we have ‘protected’ those farming jobs?

[baltimorepoet]

Or how about how the Chinese have no respect for intellectual property? Consider the case of Segway, which was alleging patent infringement by Chinese-company Ninebot.

What was Ninebot’s response to this? They simply purchased Segway.

This is the future folks. We’re f*#*ed unless Americans wake up. On the positive side, Europe will probably beat the US to the collapse by 5-10 years.

American capitalists are gladly selling the rope from which they will be hung, to the enemies of America.

But hey, as Thomas Jefferson once said “Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”

[bert]

Some manufacturing in America became unsustainable when the products were not salable because they were to expensive.

The rest of the world finally got over WW II and developed competition that made American manufacturing

Isolationists can not grasp the concept that there is a big world and that markets are global on nature

[IronJack]

According to Wikipedia, US imports from China quadrupled from 2000 to 2015. The export of that much American wealth cannot help but erode our domestic economy.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Loss of your manufacturing base results in an inability to make your own defensive, or offensive weapons
remember the Japanese lack of materials , the imposed embargoes and tariffs that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor ?
(ie.: rubber , petroleum , steel, etc)

[InterceptPoint]

I'm really no expert on this subject but a few facts are worth reviewing.

1. Manufacturing Employment is going to decline due to productivity improvements and automation. This is a pretty long historical trend. Employment growth in the U.S. is not going to come from the Manufacturing Sector.

2. China has passed us in total manufacturing output. They are a country with something like 5 times our population a huge number of which are employed in the manufacturing sector. Japan, Germany and every other country are way behind the U.S. and China. And we run circles around the Chinese when you compare output per employee. It is not even close.

There is a counter argument with a more positive outlook for U.S. Manufacturing in THIS ARTICLE from late 2014. The article includes the two charts below. The first shows the decline in manufacturing employment. The second shows the recovery from 2008 and the historical growth in manufacturing sales. Looking at that charts tells me that we are pretty much back on track in terms of the historical increases in our manufacturing output -despite Obama and the generally lower employment numbers.

[GraceG]

Normally I am against Huge tariffs, however, i think we need to start at home...

If we started Removing our own internal TARIFFs called Domestic Overregulation and Overtaxation and we could start making widgets here, employing people here to make stuff than can sent out to countries that china is currently sending crap too.

We could even open up rare-earth mining which means we could supply our domestic industries with rare earths and even send material to Japan and S. Korea..... But that would require the EPA stop over regulation...

I would be okay with a minor increase in Tariffs, but we would HAVE TO reduce our OWN INTERNAL TARIFFS simultaneously.

[Pelham]

Economist and trade authority Rush Limbaugh gave his imprimatur to NAFTA. Any claim that it caused harm rather than widespread American prosperity certainly must be in error. No one can argue that the importation of millions of Mexican peasants failed to enrich the United States.

[CodeToad]

Only an idiot thinks jobs should go to foreign nations that sell the products into the USA where no one has a job to buy those products.

Companies see the USA as a massive piggybank, and if they can only produce cheaper then they make more profit.

Like Apple, that brags of their massive hundreds of billions of dollars in profit but then proclaims they cannot possibly afford to produce their products in the USA. Typical liberals.

[3boysdad]

Don’t forget to add anti-American bureaucracies such as the EPA, and stifling corporate tax rates to the list.

[Uncle Miltie]

Who is “Economy in Crisis”?

According to their “Who We Are” page (1), only the following three people are named: a 9/11 Truther, a radical left-wing Air America personality and a regular Huffington Post contributor. If you disagree with those sources, you may wish to reconsider the general validity of this article.

Here are the people listed on the “Economy in Crisis” “Who We Are” page:

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PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - 9/11 TRUTHER (2):
Roberts comments on the “scientific impossibility” of the official explanation for the events on 9/11. On August 18, 2006, he wrote:

I will begin by stating what we know to be a solid incontrovertible scientific fact. We know that it is strictly impossible for any building, much less steel columned buildings, to “pancake” at free fall speed. Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false.... Since the damning incontrovertible fact has not been investigated, speculation and “conspiracy theories” have filled the void.[42]

In November 2012 Roberts, referred to al Qaeda’s role in the attack as “unsubstantiated.”[43]

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THOM HARTMANN – AIR AMERICA RADIO (3)

“Thom Hartmann is the #1 progressive radio talk show host in the US”

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PAT CHOATE – HUFFINGTON POST (4)

“In 1996, he was Ross Perot’s vice presidential running mate.”

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“A man is known by the company he keeps.” If you don’t prefer to keep company with 9/11 Truthers, Air America, The Huffington Post, and central_va, please do skip this article.

(1) http://economyincrisis.org/who-we-are
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts#September_11.2C_2001_attacks
(3) http://www.thomhartmann.com/
(4) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pat-choate/

[baltimorepoet]

Question for those who favor so-called “free trade” on the grounds that it represents economic “freedom”...

What is your position on slavery?

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/sep/17/modern-day-slavery-malaysia-electronics-industry

Do you believe that American jobs should be lost to countries that employ forced labor?

Or does economic “freedom” only apply to the elites?