General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why I defend NAFTA on DU, in four charts [View all]upaloopa
(11,417 posts)Last edited Tue Jan 6, 2015, 09:32 AM - Edit history (1)
you can make anything look good or bad. When it comes down to people's lives macro views don't mean shit.
I have been a manufacturing controller most of my accounting career. Manufacturing requires skills of many different types. There are shop floor jobs, R&D and engineering, maintenance jobs, planning and IT jobs, sales, purchasing and administration and managers of all these departments on all levels. Also the supply chain adds many more occupations such as transportation etc. The loss of manufacturing meant the loss of union shops and retirement plans and lead dramatically to the income inequality. The CEO pay increases relative to worker pay is unheard of before the change to a service economy since it added millions of low paying jobs which replaced middle class incomes.
When we went from a manufacturing to a service economy we lost most unskilled and semi skilled occupations. So from a macro view none of this minutia matters but to real people it does. Those jobs are now in China. My cousin was a manufacturing rep for an American company with production in China. He went to China monthly. His words to me was I have seen the future and it isn't pretty. His dad died and left him a small inheritance and he retired as soon as the money passed to him.
You don't care about real lives of the people involved because the are a blur to you and individuals and their lives are mixed together in some chart were destroyed lives aren't visible.
I really hate analysis such as yours because it paints a rosy picture to those who don't have to live with the negative consequences of trade deals.
Of course you don't mention all the worker protection clauses and environmental protections written into trade deals because they don't exist. Trade deals are written to get around laws to protect workers and the environment. You are a supporter of the brave new world were we all are in a rush to the bottom.