From CNN

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by Dreamacre

Wasn't your PT built in Mexico?


Why isn't Chrysler on the list?

PT is built in Mexico?
Pacifica is built in Canada?

Because Chrysler is a division of a German company.

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by patpur

JOEM is correct. We are part of a growing global economy, no way around it. The problem with a Global economy is that a lot of the poorer nations may be getting our business. Some of these are unstable governments. Any kind of uprising could cause shortages and embargo's, not a pleasant thought. Remember the oil embargo in the 70's ? Good example of what can happen.
Pat

Makes me a little nervous as more and more tech and service jobs get sent over to India and China. That's one of the more likely regions to go ballistic (pun intended) in the not-so-distant future. Could get interesting when we have to choose up sides.

[BlueMeanie]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Anyone but me remember NAFTA??? If you didin't want things like this to happen-you should have consulted your representatives before it was voted in. Like you actually thought they would stop at just North America? Global free trade is gonna happen.

In some ways that is a good thing. With free trade our goods will be cheaper for developing nations and boost our economy.

Dan

[JOEM]

Originally Posted by BlueMeanie

In some ways that is a good thing. With free trade our goods will be cheaper for developing nations and boost our economy.

Dan

Exactly. Protectionism has done very little good for our economy.

[DEF]

Originally Posted by BlueMeanie

On the flip side. Do we have enough skilled and unskilled labour in the US to manufacture all of these goods?

Dan

Some of us are not manufacturing anything!!

These companies are shipping over 98% of our tech jobs for example. Computer (IT - Information Technology) jobs that is. Millions of us are techies that will be losing our jobs forever if not have already! Most of my friends are computer people and they are ALL currently out of a job in our field! That's pretty damn scary folks! These folks are top notch programmers etc! Not slackers by any means. And knowing that if you still are lucky enough to be in the computer field still that your job will NOT be around for long.

Anyone who can say this is a GOOD thing must NOT be feeling or seeing the impact this is having on our programmers, analysts, techies and so many others...

Not only that but if you are getting your taxes done this year, most likely they are being figured out in India. So put CPA on that list.

Medical lab testing will be shipped there for analysis very soon. It might already be happening.

This thing is getting so crazy that they are currently working on performing major operations there too. That's right folks, stick an IV in your arm and pop you on an airplane. Let's put medical on that list too.

Originally Posted by nehope

Pretty frightening isn't it? I had someone from New Delhi call me about my AT&T long distance bill last week. I cancelled my service with them.

Call a credit card company with a problem lately? Did you understand what the person was saying to you or did he understand you? Did that person happen sound like he was from India? Bingo!!

Yes yes I know companies can now pay someone in India per month what we were getting in a day. That right folks $500/$600 a month is great money for them there. But I think what they should have done was to give us the chance of taking a pay cut instead of shipping off our jobs entirely.

I can go on and on folks but it's too damn depressing and scary to list all that I know is happening currently and in the works.

Originally Posted by BlueMeanie

In some ways that is a good thing.
Dan

[Enkiel]

i dont see a problem with that....

i'm sorry, but if nikes shoes are 100$, and the worker are paid 1$ a day, imagine the price it would be if the worker were paid 10$/hours...


to keep price low, they have to cut somewhere...

only problem i see with that is that some country have no restriction on pollution, and THAT is the real deal

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by BlueMeanie

In some ways that is a good thing. With free trade our goods will be cheaper for developing nations and boost our economy.

Dan

Citizens Trade Campaign
P.O. Box 77077 Washington, D.C. 20013
(202) 778-3320 ph (202) 293-5308 fx www.citizenstrade.org

For Immediate Release: January 13, 2004
Contact: Dan Beeton, 202-778-3311

NAFTA’s 10-Year Record of Failure
Statement of Gretchen Gordon, Director:

This month [January] marks the 10th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Far from a milestone of economic progress and prosperity, nor a step forward for workers through
higher wages and better labor conditions, NAFTA has been a miserable failure for workers, small farmers, and the poor across the continent. NAFTA’s impact on the environment, public health, and even democracy itself has also been profoundly negative, posing new dangers to the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and to the ecosystems upon which we depend for our survival.

Whereas some NAFTA proponents promised that NAFTA would reduce the U.S. trade deficit, the reverse has been true. The deficit is now five times greater with Canada than it was before NAFTA and the deficit with Mexico is up to a staggering $37 billion. The U.S. has become the largest debtor nation in the world, with even the IMF warning that its deficits threaten the world economy. NAFTA has helped to create this unsustainable and unhealthy situation.

NAFTA proponents promised an annual 170,000 new U.S. jobs. Instead, NAFTA only delivered unemployment as millions were thrown out of work, usually when their corporate employers relocated factories to other countries. Workers who lost these jobs have often at best had to settle for precarious service sector employment, earning far less. Now, new trade agreements threaten even these service sector jobs.

NAFTA has been a tremendous tool for large corporations to wield over their workers. Now, all a company has to do to squelch union-organizing is threaten to relocate to Mexico. Big business knows that in the Mexican maquiladoras that have proliferated since NAFTA’s implementation, labor rights are trampled and legitimate trade unions are few.

Mexico has been blind-sided worst of all by the NAFTA steamroller. Mexican farmers have been driven off their land in droves as agri-business giants like Archer Daniels Midland dumped corn onto the Mexican market. Many Mexican farmers were forced into jobs in the maquiladoras where they toil for a mere $5 to $4 a day. Today over half the population does not earn enough to cover basic needs.

NAFTA’s notorious Chapter 11 provisions that allow foreign investors to sue governments have put corporate profits above the health and well being of communities throughout North America. They have held endangered species and vital ecosystems hostage and undermined state, local, and federal democratic institutions.

NAFTA has been a poison pill shoved down the throats of working families and the poor. Now the Bush Administration wants to force the same bad medicine on the people of Central America with CAFTA, on the people of the Dominican Republic, and again subject the American people to more of the same lost jobs and devastated communities. It is long past time to reject the NAFTA model in favor of a trade policy that promotes societal goals such as economic justice, human rights, healthy communities, a sound environment, and democracy.
###

See also: http://www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/147/epi_bp147.pdf

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by Enkiel

i dont see a problem with that....

i'm sorry, but if nikes shoes are 100$, and the worker are paid 1$ a day, imagine the price it would be if the worker were paid 10$/hours...


to keep price low, they have to cut somewhere...

only problem i see with that is that some country have no restriction on pollution, and THAT is the real deal

So you're OK with maintaining a virtual slave-worker class so you can have cheaper tennis shoes?

[Enkiel]

Originally Posted by 4ABRUZN

So you're OK with maintaining a virtual slave-worker class so you can have cheaper tennis shoes?

what do you think will happen if they get paid for their work? prince will increase worldwide... then what? paycheck will increase...

so isntead of being paid 1$ a day for making shoes, they'll get 100$ a day...

but we will get paid 200$/hours instead of 15$/hours...

we cant all be equal, its sad , but its true

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by Enkiel

we cant all be equal, its sad , but its true

You must be one of those "compassionate conservatives" we hear so much about.