General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow did we go from a debate to repeal NAFTA
To NAFTA on steroids? What the hell kind of jobs do they think will be left? We are still not at the employment level we were before Bushco left office. We cannot compete with third world country wages.
Not to mention the current trade deficit and currency manipulation.
All that being said it would be game over for the environment.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)Think triangulation and capitulation.
Man from Pickens
(1,713 posts)that's basically how it went down, in a nutshell
Baitball Blogger
(46,705 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)So whatever he does must be good for us."
Personality cult have abandoned rationality for hero worship. Unfortunately they destroyed the party as well
onecaliberal
(32,854 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)He should know better.
Someone told him this was going to be part of his legacy.
The people who told him that have no problem with America having more of this:
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)I thought the exact same thing.
He sounded all populistic as a candidate, didn't touch that campaign ditty with a ten foot pole as a president; then went on to push something even more comprehensively worse than NAFTA.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)we were also traumatized by eight years of Bush/Cheney.
We are, most of us anyhow, over that.
I need to see a long, long record of walking the walk now, which is why I want someone who has been around long enough whose record is available for us to see, who has been consistent over the years, decades preferably, and do not care about hair, personal lives, etc. Just how they did their job for the people.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)The free traitor group of 12 here on DU that claim they know all things about trade say its so. They also say that billions of dollars in trade deficits every year is good for us, and that real wages for the middle class are at an all time high. Happy days are here again.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Though it's not very much higher at all than 40 years ago.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)Some of them don't even include a CPI that factors in food and energy costs. They also have all these creative substitution tricks to mask real world inflation. Our own government agencies that compute this have been taken over by corporate lobbyists, lawyers, and bean counters. Anybody that claims real wages for the majority of Americans are higher than they were 40 years ago has an agenda. Why don't you take your corporate propaganda and talking points somewhere else where they will actually believe it. Most of us don't believe a word of that trash.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)The CPI-U is what the Census uses, and it includes food and energy, and the census shows the median wage and income at an all time high, and the wage and income at each quintile at an all time high.
They also have all these creative substitution tricks to mask real world inflation
Thank you for parroting Glenn Beck paranoia on DU.
Anybody that claims real wages for the majority of Americans are higher than they were 40 years ago has an agenda.
No, it just means we can add and subtract.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)or any of these compromised corporate run government agencies.
The government calculates the COLA for my Social Security with their CPI. What a joke! The cost increases I've seen the past 6 years on just 3 items, energy costs (electric bills/gas heating), food, and prescription drugs, swamp my little increase from SS. They use so many tricks and substitutions that the tiny increases now just make me laugh.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Middle class wages have been basically stagnant for 40 years, but they're still (slightly) higher in inflation adjusted terms than ever before.
former9thward
(32,003 posts)The highest was in Jan, 1973
According to the BLS, the average hourly wage for non-management private-sector workers last month was $20.67, unchanged from August and 2.3% above the average wage a year earlier. Thats not much, especially when compared with the pre-Great Recession years of 2006 and 2007, when the average hourly wage often increased by around 4% year-over-year. (During the high-inflation years of the 1970s and early 1980s, average wages commonly jumped 8%, 9% or even more year-over-year.)
But after adjusting for inflation, todays average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power as it did in 1979, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms the average wage peaked more than 40 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 has the same purchasing power as $22.41 would today.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/
onecaliberal
(32,854 posts)It's beyond absurd to suggest these trade agreements are anything more that complete sellout of all industry. America can't compete with other countries who pay 5 cents an hour.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Wherein all manner of things are admitted (NAFTA was a "Mistake" and promised, knowing that the promises will be forgotten in a week or so...
The "Free Trade" segment starts at 18:18
Candidate Obama at 26:50 "Look- People don't want a cheaper t shirt if they're losing a job in the process"
onecaliberal
(32,854 posts)Thanks so much for digging this up!!!
BainsBane
(53,032 posts)But I knew at the time he didn't mean it. I didn't have that reaction to other responses he made, but I could tell that one was pandering.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)BainsBane
(53,032 posts)They don't include the same member nations.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)Exilednight
(9,359 posts)Environmental protections and fewer worker rights.
What could possibly go wrong?
I'll make this as simple as possible. Trade agreements are not about raising the standard of living in 3rd world and emerging markets. They're about lowering standards here at home
It's a race to the bottom.