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catnhatnh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-01-07 11:22 PM
Original message
Insourcing-a second segment of middle class jobs attacked...
Edited on Sat Sep-01-07 11:26 PM by catnhatnh
...as part of the NAFTA super highway. Now that most manufacturing jobs have been outsourced a new drive has been launched to further widen the gulf between the rich and all others. In the post(WW2)years manufacturing jobs along with a few other union represented vocations were the gateway for the entrance of formerly lower class workers to enter into a burgeoning middle class...a man no longer needed to be born to wealth to at least send one or more of his children to college...As a for instance, John Edwards dad was a mill worker...in fact in those days (50's & 60's) colleges underwent explosive growth fueled by our drive toward the now dieing middle class.
Now as an "experiment", Mexican truckers will be allowed to drive through a middle American highway to the border of Canada...what is NOT mentioned is that there will be no balancing drive for Canadian truckers to "surge" south below the border-Mexicans will cut the legs from under the moribund remnant of the American trucking industry far more quickly than people who demand benefits like health care and fair wages...
Reagan killed the air safety government workers and deregulated trucking all in the name of reduced government and lower costs. Is it cheaper to fly now or to ship than in 1980?? Are there less people in poverty???
They killed the manufacturing jobs and then said it was necessary to compete internationally. Then they said we needed migrants to take jobs "Americans won't do", and now they are insourcing to maximize profits as most citizens are driven towards a marginalized life in a country divided between the chosen and the serfs. What used to be America is now merely a "Homeland"...And no Nazi ever framed it better...
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Sarah Ibarruri Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-01-07 11:44 PM
Response to Original message
1. How can we do away with NAFTA? nt
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catnhatnh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 12:00 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. I believe Nafta is not wrong...
...but rather is being cynically applied...if a politician backed it tomorrow with the honest intent of a true union I could support it, though in a real balancing of wealth and social services throughout the continent most Americans would have to settle for a bit less consumerist "bling"...
A continent truly "trading" will equalize. Juan y Maria will gain higher wages and healthcare...John and Mary American will lose a bit in wages but gain a true social safety net...in the Great White North they will just wonder why it took so long...
That would be REAL fair trade-do you think that is what our government is shooting at???
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Sarah Ibarruri Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 12:02 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. If it allows the current application, then it IS wrong. nt
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regnaD kciN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 02:20 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. By your standards, NAFTA was never intended to be "right"...
While the idea of an economic union, in theory, might be mutually beneficial, but the way the actual treaty was designed clearly set as its unspoken goal the creation of a "race to the bottom" that would benefit the corporate elite while shafting those not already among Bush's "'haves' and 'have-mores'." And the WTO framework is no different.

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sandnsea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 02:08 AM
Response to Original message
4. The investor class and those who serve them
Many have been warning of this for years, right here at DU. I even recommended that young people figure out how to invest because relying on work wasn't a smart thing to do.

They are insourcing much more than 'menial' jobs already, construction, tech, nurses, doctors. It's only a matter of time before the professions are all insourced too.

The message ought to be - if you don't stand up for labor EVERYwhere, you aren't going to be protected ANYwhere. But racism trumps the obvious solution.
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Maq Donating Member (481 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 09:38 AM
Response to Reply #4
9. Education has the capability of being INSOURCED
The large concentrations of students in megaschools cost huge amounts of money. To build, to maintain, to buy, to pension off, The operating costs are tremendous. Look at the Universit of Phoenix, as an example, there is no reason why a common elementary school, middle school or high school could not do the same thing.

That education conglomerate could be located in any country, such as India which has a sizable English speaking class. The republican dream...Privatize Education....reap the big BUCKs.
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soothsayer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 08:32 AM
Response to Original message
6. one day we'll wake up and realize that the quaint gov we learned about
in civics class ceased to exist awhile ago, ever since private contractors controlled our money and oversaw all the government information and data, which is how the powers-that-be have been able to consolidate their money and power while sucking it all away from we the people. We're not sovereign; our government is NOT calling the shots, so neither are we. You too could figure out how to make money hand over fist if you controlled and watched all the data out there, and owned the banks that collectively own the bank that holds all of our national treasure. So much of our economy is driven by and depends on our tax dollars that it's easy to manipulate things if you know or can direct where the money is going. "Hey congressman so and so, award a big gov contract to company x that's now trading at $1" you say, and when the stock shoots up to $11, you know just when to sell and make your $10 per share profit. "Hey congressman, pull that contract, will ya?" and lo and behold, good thing you shorted, cuz now you're making another $10 per share as the stock goes back down. Pump and dump (of stocks, of houses, of neighborhoods, of communities, of people, of countries) is just one scheme they use over and over. But the big one ia the famous military industrial complex that we were warned about. Our war industry is worth $500 billion or more a year (isn't that the known pentagon budget? of course there's much, much more in black ops and secret spending, unappropriated by congress---which is illegal according to own our laws and the constitution, but no matter) and if you've got all that warfare and weaponry you're going to need an enemy to use it on, or else how do you sustain the industry? But as the world gets smaller and more chummy, enemies are harder to come by. So you have to manufacture ones that won't go away, like a vague war against 'terror' which brilliantly can never end! Now all the big boys are assured of easy ways to drain the rest of our money into their pockets with us hardly noticing or fussing. We've been taken for such a ride,and we're so naive.

The good news is that we really CAN wrest the US back from their control, and it's not that hard, except that we've got to change our ways. For one, we've got to pull our money out of the things we DON'T want to support---the big, traitorous anti-american companies like walmart and halliburton and you'd better check your 'socially responsible' funds because you'll be shocked to see that they are also funding the big bad companies via their participation in mutual funds and stuff. We've got to support community banks ('wah! but I have to pay atm fees!' you cry, but that $25 a year is alot cheaper than the $14,000 each american now owes because of our runaway federal deficit or national debt or whatever the hell it is that keeps getting bigger because we are feeding the giant 'tapeworm' corporations that are sucking us dry, rather than trying to sustain ourselves and each other) and we'll have to start spending our money really wisely (say, supporting small businesses and our own communities, and staying healthy---that's one of the biggest causes of bankruptcy, getting sick is---prolly why they want to take away our vitamins and supplements like the EU has done to those poor sheeple---and living more simply and getting energy and food independence and really producing things here in the US again, and supporting the companies that do and one another's businesses). We won't get our money back from the crooks who stole it, but we'll keep the money we have and circulate it among ourselves, so they'll have less of an opportunity to snatch it from us, and they'll move on to greener pastures (asia, other countries---hell, they're already pouring money into there instead of here) and we'll find our money actually staying in our communities instead of being sucked out to vast conglomerates or overseas.

end of rant
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Cleita Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 08:53 AM
Response to Original message
7. You need a resurgence of a real labor movement.
Since they have de-balled the present labor unions, workers need to form informal groups outside of the workplace to discuss their plight and plan options, underground labor unions if you will. Since employers aren't playing fair, you don't need to either. What if you started a club or guild of like workers, computer programmers for instance, then you could share information and subsequently strategies to keep, get your jobs back or more drastic measures to bring employers to their knees. You have to do it or you will become drones in their grand scheme. Organizing into groups is what you have to do. There is always power in numbers. The trick is to adapt to the changing landscape as they change the rules.
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robinlynne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #7
10. And this country needs to go to the streets.
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Maq Donating Member (481 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-02-07 09:22 AM
Response to Original message
8. bye bye middle class jobs
EXCERPT: "Now as an "experiment", Mexican truckers will be allowed to drive through a middle American highway to the border of Canada...what is NOT mentioned is that there will be no balancing drive for Canadian truckers to "surge" south below the border-Mexicans will cut the legs from under the moribund remnant of the American trucking industry far more quickly than people who demand benefits like health care and fair wages..."

You can now expect a very rapid replacement of American Truck Drivers with Mexicans. The transfer of whole Trucking Operations from the States to Mexico. With the common use of GPS technology to identify where each truck is located and the utility of computer mapping technology. An American is not needed to drive these rigs around the country.

Further, it is probable that the import laws for foreign Trucks or Rigs, Tractors is more lenient in Mexico. Thus this will permit a competitive edge to shift toward those foreign companies. The American Truck manufacturing industry will also suffer along with those jobs they generate.

BYE BYE middle class.
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