NAFTA: Good, Bad or Spongy-Poo

I read an article on NAFTA this morning and just had to e-mail the author. The article and my response are below. I'll post any reply I receive.

Re: http://www.ttgconsultants.com/articles/freetrade.html

You make the assumption that everyone in this country can be trained to do “knowledge” work. Have you actually been to Walmart and talked to employees/customers??? I’m betting you never leave your glass house. Not only that, but since the wealthy in our country refuse to help fund education, we have no way of training people. In fact, we cut education every year. And don’t tell me that privatized education fills the void, since employers already complain that the education received is inadequate. NAFTA is creating a poverty society within what used to be the greatest nation on earth, very simply in order for the rich to keep and constantly increase their wealth while obtaining cheap, slave labor from third world countries. A quick reading of a few basic history books will enlighten you as to the eventual outcome of that behavior.

Just a quick question for you. Who will buy the products that companies produce when wages have been lowered to the point where all an average American can afford is a tiny house, a little food, and gas to get to work? Who is going to support the retired poverty class when they have no retirement, not because they didn’t want to save, but because their wages were so low they could barely afford to eat, let alone save for retirement? I’m betting you have no better answer than pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking.

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Okay, that's the end of my comments to the author. I might also have wanted to point out that if NAFTA has truly done so much for the Mexican economy, then the illegal aliens currently residing in this country should be anxious to return. I wonder why they are not and why so many Mexican continue to come across our border illegally?

Another thing that occurs to me is that since companies are moving their jobs out of this country and not supporting this economy, perhaps they should not be able to sell their products here. After all, a good economy is produced by money moving around, not just being sucked up by the wealthy who produce for pennies and collect dollars. If they want to depress wages, maybe they should be forced to depress prices, too.

Finally, in response to the idea that NAFTA has lowered unemployment, one may want to consider that flipping burgers is now considered a manufacturing job. This "job" pays little more than minimum wage and has little or no real benefits. Yeah, NAFTA has lowered unemployment, after employment was re-defined. It works kind of like the standard line on inflation that our government now use: "Not counting fuel costs, there was no inflation last quarter." I wonder if that works in other situations? "Your Honor, not counting the bank robbery, I committed no crime." Honey, not counting my secretary, I didn't cheat on you."