Just posted at the Jack Kirby Facebook group... this is IMPORTANT.
I wonder if anybody here knows what "Free Trade" agreements are? They're directly connected with what they call "out-sourcing". Which is SENDING AMERICAN JOBS OVERSEAS. Both "Free Trade" and "out-sourcing" are forms of "Orwellian Newspeak". (Since chapter 3 of "The Madbomb" was entitled "1984", I think Jack Kirby would understand and appreciate where I'm going with this.) "Newspeak" is when you take something MONSTROUSLY EVIL and give a "nice" sounding name to fool the suckers.
"Free Trade" and "Out-sourcing" have been going on STEADILY since the mid-1950's. EVERY PRESIDENT (from BOTH parties) since the 1950's has voted in favor of "Free Trade" agreements.
I am of the view that EVERY company that sends American jobs OVERSEAS is guilty of HIGH TREASON against this country and its people. EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!!!
Until "Free Trade" and "Outsourcing" are STAMPED OUT, unemployement will CONTINUE to increase.
Write your Congressmen. Write your Senators. Write them EVERY DAY. KEEP writing. YOU'RE paying their salary. Or at least-- you should be. Unless out-sourcing has cost you your job already. If it hasn't yet, it will-- SOON.
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I agree with every word you say, but ...that horse has bolted, long ago.
There is some mental global agreement in the works that will mean countries pay multinationals huge sums of money whenever they do stuff that disadvantages said multinationals.
The talks are shrouded in secrecy.
See here for one such Free Trade agreement:
...When I recently left San Francisco (again) to return to San Jose (which is where I have officially lived since about February of this year) , prior to leaving , at an Army-Navy stor on Market St. called Kaplan's (which , frankly , gives somewhat the impression of counting down to cloosing up , though I suppose I am being negative - though likely true , methinketh - with , furthermore , I have read , the landlord apparently preparing to sell the building to take advantage of the latest " tech industry "-spurred real estate value boom in San Francisco-
I could write my congressmen and senators a letter a day for a century. I could also go down to the beach and tell the tide not to come in. What good would it do? They are in safe districts well engineered to keep them safe. The last thing I want to do is be put on a list and get audited.
And the globilization of the economy is I think inevitable be it controlled by multinationals or arising from the natural evolution of more efficient shipping and the ease of world wide communications. The days when you had to buy an airmail stamp or connect with the overseas operator or even go through the Telstar satellite are long gone. Business deals are easy with video conferencing. What was is gone, what will be is uncertain and what we can do about it is hold on and try to survive.
......I got distracted here...-Said A/M was selling a bunch of 1979 tennis shoes/sneakers , Converses...water/fire-damaged from a fire back then and never worn , kept in storage , $3.99 a pair 3/$10.00...A handwritten sign said " AU. S. Made " or similar - Indeed , that was befor much physical manufacture in the U.S.:
(1) " went south " in the U.S. - toward the generally anti-union staes .
(2) Left the US for Mexico/Central America...
(3) Left there for China...
(4) Then Indonesia , Burma , etc. ?
Well the world is a globe after all, it might take a few decades but it could all come back to us.
I wrote a response, but I'm replacing it with this different one. In Goethe's Faust there's a bit where Faust goes for a walk and a peasant thanks him for his and his father's past work as doctors:
...many a man here drawing breath,
Caught by the fever's parching grasp,
Was by your father snatched from death,
The time he stemmed the plague at last.
(l.997-1000 trans. Walter Arndt [ed. Cyrus Hamlin; Norton Critical Edition series]).
But Faust tells his assistant Wagner that he sees his father and his younger self as frauds. He describes how his father would produce a potion based on alchemical principles. When it was ready
...There was your dose, the patients went on dying,
And nobody enquired: who was healed?
And thus with our infernal tonic
Upon these hills, these dales we visited
A plague far worse than the bubonic.
Why, with this potion I myself defrauded
Men by the thousands, leaving them for dead...
(l.1048-1054 trans. Walter Arndt [as above])
This reflects a reality. There was a time when doctors really didn't know what they were doing in many areas. George Washington, for example, was probably partly killed by his doctors: they reportedly treated his illness by draining over half his blood. But today doctors know much more. Likewise, economics has made progress. There are certainly areas in which there is disagreement among economists, but the arguments in favour of free trade seem to be widely accepted. And really, they should be, because they are very strong.
Briefly, trade is a two way process, so exporting goods implies importing goods and vice versa. Goods have inherent value, while money does not, so imports are a transfer of wealth into one's country. Exports are good because they make imports possible. Free trade does mean job losses in uncompetitive sectors, but the effect is balanced by the creation of jobs in competitive ones. The alternative is taking pressure off businesses to be competitive, and that just doesn't work.
Any corrections are welcome.
If you were Canadian you wouldn't have to ask if anyone knows what Free Trade means. It's funny that there was a big political upheaval over the Free Trade agreement with the United States in the '80s that got people up in arms and inluenced the federal election at the time in Canada--yet Americans are oblivious to it?
In fact, Canada is trying to push through a Free Trade deal with Europe that's been in negotiations for years--and they got to get it done, before the Americans start negotiations with Europe for the same deal.
Lots of jobs went south with NAFTA and a lot of our consumer products and federal regulations were affected. So in a lot of ways it's a bad thing for Canada. But at the same time American protectionism is far worse. We have a small population of consumers--to survive many industries need to sel their products abroad, and if the U.S. (our biggest trading partner) puts up barriers, our industries fail.
This is why Canada is going around to Europe and Asia, trying to get deals on trade--because the American market is drying up for trade. I don't think Canada will fall into financial ruin--the U.S and E.U. would probably get there first--but would Americans like to see Canada as a failed state? Failed states are a threat to the world economy--and they can create all kinds of other problems. You don't want to be on the border with a failed state. So Canadians and American should hope we both stay healthy.
A well reasoned and layed out response Luke, but I think I'll play devil's advocate a little.
It seems to me the twin foundations of economics are: first, a set of rules to determine how goods and services can be distributed, and second, the balance of supply and demand.
It never pays off to try to circumvent economics because your system will always work best when you let it do what it's designed to do. However, economics isn't a natural law and even in the most open economies on the planet, there will always be rules set up to make things work better and lead to preferred outcomes. If the international agreements prevent some countries from setting up a base system that properly accounts for its unique circumstances, increased trade may not be a benefit because it might lead to excessive negative externalities.
Bringing this back to jobs and the balance of supply and demand, if the world has a huge glut of people willing to work for pennies, then that means the demand for higher wage labour is pretty low. Things would eventually balance but I don't think most first world residents would be very happy with the level they'd stabilize at.
Even if Canada wasn't so dependent on trade, the more open borders with the U.S. are probably a good thing. Just look at the airline industry that remained protected in Canada. Because they weren't included, U.S. airlines can't fly Canadian routes. Now with just one national airline, our airfare costs are drastically more expensive than the American equivalent and due to the lack of competition, the smaller airports are fighting just to stay open and servicing minimal routes. Here in Saint John, unless I'm flying to Toronto, it makes more sense for me to drive to Bangor, 3 and a half hours away, and fly from there. Bangor, a city that's about 1/3 the size of Saint John, but because of the different rules has a fully functioning airport. I REALLY wish the airlines had been included in the FTA.