U.S. economy lost nearly 700,000 jobs because Of NAFTA, EPI says

[tangent4ronpaul]

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=240680

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was first signed in 1994, proponents said it would eventually create jobs for the U.S. economy. 17 years later, a new report estimates, the American worker only has hundreds of thousands of job losses to show for it. According to a report by Economic Policy Institute economist Robert Scott, entitled ""Heading South: U.S.-Mexico trade and job displacement after NAFTA,"" an estimated 682,900 U.S. jobs have been ""lost or displaced"" because of the agreement and the resulting trade deficit. The historic agreement, signed just three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, tore down trade barriers between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, making trade and investment easier for businesses without allowing for the cross-border movement of labor. Despite the agreement being considered a boon for Mexico, the country's economy grew only 1.6 percent per capita on average between 1992 and 2007, The New York Times reported in 2009. The EPI's calculation of 682,900 jobs lost to NAFTA takes into account jobs created as a result, too. Last year, for example, U.S. exports to Mexico supported 791,900 jobs. It's just that those jobs created pale in comparison to the 1.47 million U.S. jobs that would be necessary without the imports resulting from NAFTA, the report found. Still, the number of jobs lost to NAFTA looks minimal when placed against the havoc freaked by the financial crisis. Only in 2008, at the height of the crisis, the U.S. economy hemorrhaged 2.6 million jobs, according to CNNMoney. The U.S. is currently considering a similar trade agreement with South Korea, called U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). KORUS, like NAFTA, could similarly displace American jobs, EPI warns
[...]

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

:( I hate NAFTA just as bad as NAMBLA

[bobbyw24]

What y'all aren't Free Trade Fanatical Extremists? Wutz wrong wit choo?

[showpan]

Those numbers are totally false. This country has lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. They have redefined many jobs such as food processing to include these into manufacturing and then have reclassified many jobs to include them into exporting. This number also does not reflect all the millions of jobs lost due to national and local economies and businesses being devastated by factory closures. Full time jobs that payed $40k to $60k were replaced by part time and seasonal jobs paying $20k or less per year. Just as unemployment figures do not count a large portion of those unemployed and under employed, jobs lost and created are not truthfully accounted for. Many more jobs are being eliminated as we speak due to truck drivers now being fired and their support trades like mechanics and parts suppliers who will soon follow. These job losses will trickle all the way down to even truck stops and waitresses who's hours will be cut. They also do not count all of the money that has now left the country due to NAFTA. Many of the companies that have moved overseas have increased their profits at an enormous rate and are currently sitting on all that cash hidden in places like the Cayman Islands....it's in the trillions.

[TruckinMike]

whether true or false, I don't know. BUT, I do know that I continue to ship machine tools sold at auction from ohio, michigan, indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other states --- straight to the mexican border in Laredo. Why am I not shipping machine tool equipment the other way? On the good side, I do seem to ship finished goods out of Laredo back to those states. Hhhmmmm? scratch head....

[Anti Federalist]

whether true or false, I don't know. BUT, I do know that I continue to ship machine tools sold at auction from ohio, michigan, indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other states --- straight to the mexican border in Laredo. Why am I not shipping machine tool equipment the other way? On the good side, I do seem to ship finished goods out of Laredo back to those states. Hhhmmmm? scratch head....

Sold at the auctions of out of business manufacturing concerns.

Real money and real jobs are created when the value is added, when a raw material is actually made into something worthwhile.

And that's what's heading for the exits.

Our largest export to China? Scrap metal and trash.

We're like a family on the verge of foreclosure, trying to hold onto the house by selling off everything in the place at yard sale to pay the mortgage.

[Anti Federalist]

"Manufacturing job" as defined by BLS:

Repacking Chinese made shoes into boxes for retail sale.


Those numbers are totally false. This country has lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. They have redefined many jobs such as food processing to include these into manufacturing and then have reclassified many jobs to include them into exporting. This number also does not reflect all the millions of jobs lost due to national and local economies and businesses being devastated by factory closures. Full time jobs that payed $40k to $60k were replaced by part time and seasonal jobs paying $20k or less per year. Just as unemployment figures do not count a large portion of those unemployed and under employed, jobs lost and created are not truthfully accounted for. Many more jobs are being eliminated as we speak due to truck drivers now being fired and their support trades like mechanics and parts suppliers who will soon follow. These job losses will trickle all the way down to even truck stops and waitresses who's hours will be cut. They also do not count all of the money that has now left the country due to NAFTA. Many of the companies that have moved overseas have increased their profits at an enormous rate and are currently sitting on all that cash hidden in places like the Cayman Islands....it's in the trillions.

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Sold at the auctions of out of business manufacturing concerns.

Real money and real jobs are created when the value is added, when a raw material is actually made into something worthwhile.

And that's what's heading for the exits.

Our largest export to China? Scrap metal and trash.

We're like a family on the verge of foreclosure, trying to hold onto the house by selling off everything in the place at yard sale to pay the mortgage.

If it is profitable (efficient) to do so. When it costs you an extraordinary amount thanks to Government interference you should be thankful that there are places you can purchase these goods and services for, far cheaper, than if we closed out all trade from foreign shores. Now, that isn't a defense of NAFTA, which I believe to be abysmally harmful (it isn't free-trade), but as a generic defense of Free-Trade, as evidenced by what the Constitution guarantees between the States. I haven't seen you come out yet against that, so I would assume, given unilateral (or not) agreements / treaties which do enact actual Free-Trade (aka free movement of labor and goods NOT GODDAMN JURISDICTIONAL AUTHORITY!) then you would be for it, right? Otherwise, AF, you best be making your statements to strike out the free-trade portion of the Constitution.

[Pericles]

If it is profitable (efficient) to do so. When it costs you an extraordinary amount thanks to Government interference you should be thankful that there are places you can purchase these goods and services for, far cheaper, than if we closed out all trade from foreign shores. Now, that isn't a defense of NAFTA, which I believe to be abysmally harmful (it isn't free-trade), but as a generic defense of Free-Trade, as evidenced by what the Constitution guarantees between the States. I haven't seen you come out yet against that, so I would assume, given unilateral (or not) agreements / treaties which do enact actual Free-Trade (aka free movement of labor and goods NOT GODDAMN JURISDICTIONAL AUTHORITY!) then you would be for it, right? Otherwise, AF, you best be making your statements to strike out the free-trade portion of the Constitution.

It's a damn good deal for us that Microsoft makes Windows in China. If Windows 3.11 cost $49, who knows how much more Windows 7 would cost if it was made in the USA.

[heavenlyboy34]

Those numbers are totally false. This country has lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. They have redefined many jobs such as food processing to include these into manufacturing and then have reclassified many jobs to include them into exporting. This number also does not reflect all the millions of jobs lost due to national and local economies and businesses being devastated by factory closures. Full time jobs that payed $40k to $60k were replaced by part time and seasonal jobs paying $20k or less per year. Just as unemployment figures do not count a large portion of those unemployed and under employed, jobs lost and created are not truthfully accounted for. Many more jobs are being eliminated as we speak due to truck drivers now being fired and their support trades like mechanics and parts suppliers who will soon follow. These job losses will trickle all the way down to even truck stops and waitresses who's hours will be cut. They also do not count all of the money that has now left the country due to NAFTA. Many of the companies that have moved overseas have increased their profits at an enormous rate and are currently sitting on all that cash hidden in places like the Cayman Islands....it's in the trillions.

Yeah. Ross Perot called it "the giant sucking sound", IIRC.

[showpan]

It's a damn good deal for us that Microsoft makes Windows in China. If Windows 3.11 cost $49, who knows how much more Windows 7 would cost if it was made in the USA.

Probably the same if not cheaper.

This is another fallacy, the cost for goods went up shortly after NAFTA. And they will use any excuse to raise prices such as unrest in the middle east and soaring fuel costs....lol
Take peas made by Del Monte as an example, before NAFTA, they were made here and sold here. The average price per can was around $.42. Shortly after they moved, the cans were made smaller and the price shot up to about $.65
Not only did the move more than double their profits, they received subsidies for moving and payed less in taxes. When they moved, the local Mexican farmers were put out of business because Del Monte sucked up all the water and bribed the local officials to pass a law that wells could not be dug deeper...this also effected those local food supplies since they were eating their own products. It now created a bunch of starving, indignant folks who also lost the lease on their land that was no longer being worked...and guess who sucked up all those leases?

People really need to start researching these things because the truth is getting buried under 100's of pages of corporate sponsored garbage. You should also research the companies themselves and look at their financial pages to see how they lie. Just follow the money.

If you look hard enough, you'll find that the prices for almost everything has gone up and the quality has gone down since bad trade agreements my 8 yr old could have made better. Also, look at who the number one pollution producing country is now....3 guesses and the first two don't count...lol