Have you won or lost due to "free" trade?

[JDPriestly]

Please explain your answer below. As we are shown the new TPP agreement, I am interested in finding out what you think of what "free" trade has done to our economy and our country.

7 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	My life is better because I got a better job thanks to "free" trade.
	0 (0%)
	My life is better because I can buy cheap stuff thanks to "free" trade.
	0 (0%)
	My life is better because I got a better job and can buy cheap stuff thanks to "free" trade..
	1 (14%)
	My life is worse because I lost my job thanks to "free" trade.
	0 (0%)
	My life is worse because I cannot get a job thanks to "free" trade.
	0 (0%)
	My life is worse because the products I buy are of poorer quality thanks to "free" trade.
	6 (86%)
	My life is worse because I lost my job, can't get another and the stuff I buy is junk thanks to "free" trade.
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[pacalo]

1. Other: We American workers lose through outsourcing, lower wages, & less benefits

that free trade encourages. Free trade benefits corporate interests.

[Maedhros]

2. But...SHINY BAUBLES!!! [n/t]

[JDPriestly]

3. Good point!

I often think of the lower wages and benefits in countries with extremely low ages that we trade with as representing unsafe sanitary conditions including often dirty drinking water, no proper sewers, less food, medical care even worse than our own, less education, etc.

Our wages allow us to pay for good sewage systems, electricity, medical care (for the middle class at least), good housing, schools, and all the things we take for granted as our basic standard of living.

I'm not talking cars or even bicycles or things we might think of as luxuries but often take for granted. Our paychecks permit us to pay reasonable taxes that support basic sanitary conditions and transportation -- the fire department, the police department.

As our paychecks shrink, our access to some of these things we consider necessities will also be reduced. In some communities, think Ferguson, the combined taxes and payments of the residents will no longer support these necessities.

We cannot afford "free" trade. The oligarchs from all countries love it. They go into the countries that are part of "free" trade agreements and buy properties.

We run constant trade deficits. That money is returned in some cases to the US and "invested" in the purchase of properties. In California that has contributed somewhat to the high cost of our land and houses.

[joshcryer]

4. Pick up anything in a five foot circle.

If it's not food is going to say made in China.

Or some other Asian country.

The simple fact is that the US has been exporting its manufacturing for decades.



If you are using any kind of electronics they were made by slave labor, to say you aren't ”benefiting" is either a lie, or plain ignorance.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. I can't trace my job loss to free trade

but it certainly kept my wages depressed over the years I was coding, as I had to keep being paid less than the Russian coders kept sending offers for outsourcing.