Why I defend NAFTA on DU, in four charts

[JDPriestly]

232. One of the reasons I oppose the trade agreements is that we have no strategy here in America

for making sure that we do collect enough taxes to pay for the things we need as a country while gorging ourselves on all kinds of imported goods.

Our balance of payments deficit is frightful. But we merrily proceed to go broke buying imports. Meanwhile, the Chinese are buying our real estate. I have nothing against the Chinese except that our country, our people, is not well enough organized or sophisticated enough to devise an economic and trade policy to play the free market game with the grown-ups in other countries.

Having lived in Germany and Austria, knowing how their good newspapers seriously discuss matters like the details of tax and budget policy and then comparing that with the endless trivia about the Kardashians (did I spell that right) and violence on TV and in the house next door, I just think we in America are babes in the woods when it comes to international trade. We don't know how to tie our shoes. Our corporations, most of them international and strategizing their internal tax policy so as to hurt the US economy and tax revenues as much as possible, are entrusted with the details of the TPP negotiation, but ordinary citizens are excluded. No wonder we are so naive about what is really involved and what measure of hard work, strategy and commitment we need to put into developing products that people in other countries want to buy.

Sorry I am on a rant. But we are getting into free trade agreements that benefit the likes of Walmart and Apple and most Americans have no clue as to what issues are involved in the decisions being made behind their backs. They don't realize that things are likely to get much worse in many respects in this country if we enter into the TPP.