Costly Trade Agreements Have Shipped 5.5 Million Jobs Overseas Since 2000

[grahamhgreen]

"So-called Free Trade is destroying our national manufacturing base. According to a new report by the National Bureau of Economic Research, free trade relations with China, beginning in 2000, are responsible for cutting 30% of the manufacturing jobs we have in this nation. You can see this decline in the raw numbers. Around 2001, there were 17 million manufacturing jobs in America.

Today – that’s dropped off drastically to 11.5 million. And according to the Economic Policy Institute – nearly 3 million of those lost manufacturing jobs went directly to China since 2001. Thanks to so-called Free Trade, our policymakers are exporting those crucial blue-collar jobs that sustained a prosperous middle class, from the end of World War 2 all the way until the 1980’s.

And without those jobs, Americans are forced into the minimum wage service sector, asking, “Would you like Fries with that?” or greeting people at the door saying, “Welcome to Wal-Mart.” This is exactly what the transnational billionaires who push for these trade agreements want.

And until we drop out of these so-called free trade agreements, and once again begin protecting domestic manufacturing with tariffs or VAT taxes – the middle class will continue to shrink – and America will look more and more like a collapsed nation that’s exported all of its wealth to the rest of the world." - http://m.thomhartmann.com/forum/2013/01/free-trade-vs-middle-class

[pampango]

1. Manufacturing employment has declined in every developed country since at least 1970.

The decline preceded the emergence of China as an economic force or the passage of the first 'free trade' agreements.

Walling the country off from the poor of the word (through tariffs - a VAT is a different matter) is hardly a progressive solution to our economic problems. FDR did not raise tariffs; he lowered them. The EU has more 'free trade' than the US and is a more progressive place than the US and has a much stronger middle class.

FDR's policies and the EU are examples of progressive approaches to trade and a healthy middle class.

[grahamhgreen]

4. Not only is your chart UNSOURCED, but it is also INACCURATE!

Last edited Tue Jan 15, 2013, 07:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/MANEMP.txt


I will trust the above data from the U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics

But, I'm curious, what do you do for a living? I would think that you, like most of the people on DU have personal stories of friends and family who have lost their jobs to the outsourcing of American jobs. Perhaps it will happen to someone you know soon, so the effects can become more real to you. This is a serious issue. As Dem's we must unify to fight the costly trade agreements, as Obama promised.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. "As Dem's we must unify to fight the costly trade agreements,"

like the one Clinton signed in 1999.
NAFTA, remember?
The one Ross Perot accurately said would create "a giant sucking sound" as jobs left America.

[grahamhgreen]

9. Yep. Those ones.

[Nye Bevan]

10. When did Obama "promise to fight" free trade agreements?

He has done nothing to weaken NAFTA and signed quite a few brand new free trade agreements.

Obama gets win as Congress passes free-trade agreements

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-gets-win-as-congress-passes-free-trade-agreements/2011/10/12/gIQAGHeFgL_story.html

The South Korea deal has the potential to create as many as 280,000 American jobs, according to a recent assessment by the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission, and to boost exports by more than $12 billion. Several major labor unions have warned that any gains will come at the cost of layoffs among American workers because of heightened competition from South Korean imports.

The South Korea deal is widely hailed as the most consequential trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement was ratified in 1994.

The House approved all three deals and was quickly followed by the Senate. Final approval of the agreements represents a victory for the Obama administration and congressional leaders in both parties, who have touted the trade pacts as a means to jump-start the flagging economy without additional government spending. Ratification of the agreements holds particular importance for President Obama, who has set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015 and is facing a tough bid for reelection with unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent.

“I look forward to signing these agreements,” Obama said late Wednesday. He hailed passage as “a major win for American workers and businesses.”

[MrSlayer]

2. Intentionally destroying the middle class.

Offshoring and outsourcing is nothing less than treason. And it all went right on by with the cheering approval of the idiots in this country. I personally blame my parent's generation that was supposed to know better but went and voted for the father of modern American fascism, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

We're done. As we move deeper into this global economy, our standard of living will continue to drop. We've killed ourselves.

[grahamhgreen]

8. I agree. We can and must turn it around!

[AzDar]

3. K & R

[Follow The Money]

5. we had tariffs for a reason

Tariffs in United States history have played important roles in trade policy, political debates and the nation's economic history. The 1st United States Congress, wanting a straightforward tax that was not too onerous and easy to collect, passed the Tariff of 1790. Like all subsequent tariffs it taxed imported goods at their Ports of entry to raise revenue for the federal government. Treasury agents collected the tariff before goods could be landed, and what became the Coast Guard prevented smuggling. Tariffs were the largest (approaching 95% at times) source of federal revenue until the Federal income tax began after 1913.

Our founders wanted our Government to be paid for by Corporations and Tariffs, not personal income tax.

This is one issue where we can unite with the right (if they had a brain and a leader that wasn't a sociopathic sadistic asshole)

They don't want to pay income tax- well let's work together to end 'free' trade and tax corporations instead.

I just don't understand their current policy, no one pays taxes yet they want it all, wars and big government because they are so scared.

We need them to face facts, if you want stuff, you have to pay for it, and who better than the record profit making corporations, the only ones who have been doing well in the horrible economy they created by demanding so many tax cuts.

[grahamhgreen]

6. "Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue until the Federal income tax began after 1913."

Thanks for that.

The costly trade agreements are costing our children the future!