Democrats in denial over loss; globalization to blame

[portlander23]

Democrats in denial over loss; globalization to blame
CHUCK KELLY
The Charlotte Observer

Globalization has been a disaster for working class Americans. It is different from past international trade agreements because it is unregulated and untaxed. It means that corporations can now abandon American communities and their workers and go to countries that have pitifully low wages and few or no worker protections. Then they can sell their products back in the best consumer market in the world, the U.S., at a huge profit.

If you consider American workers as no more than machines or raw materials, then permitting corporations to leave the U.S. to go to low wage countries is economically efficient. However, if you consider American workers as citizens of our nation who deserve a decent standard of living, outsourcing just becomes a way to cut them out of the profit stream of our “free enterprise” system. The only reason it’s economically efficient to cut timber in the Carolinas, ship lumber to China, turn it into furniture and then ship it back to the Carolinas – is that labor is incredibly cheap in China.

It’s unrealistic to expect Hillary Clinton to actually have done this, but she should have pointed out to voters that NAFTA was Republican legislation and President Clinton made a horrible mistake when he didn't veto it. It was President George H.W. Bush who signed the NAFTA agreement with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas in 1992. In 1993, Congress ratified it. Only then did a new President Bill Clinton sign it into law.

Instead, Hillary Clinton tried her level best to convince voters that the economy of the 1990s was good for workers because of her husband’s presidency. It certainly was good for national debt reduction, lower unemployment and increased corporate profitability, but it was the beginning of a disaster for American workers, and those American workers know it.