Is
Obama Negotiating A Treaty That Would Essentially Ban All "Buy
American" Laws?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
http://albertpeia.com/wobombanation.htm
‘69 members of the
There is not much protecting American
jobs these days. The "Buy American" laws are one of the last
remaining barriers that helps protect against much, much cheaper foreign labor,
but now "Buy American" laws are in danger of being banned permanently
as a recent article in the Huffington Post
explained....
Since
the 1930s, the American government has offered preferential treatment to
American producers in the awarding of federal contracts. If a domestic producer
offers the government a more expensive bid than a foreign producer, it can
still be awarded the contract under certain circumstances, but more recent free
trade agreements have granted other nations the same negotiating status as
domestic firms. The Obama administration is currently pushing to grant the
several nations involved in the Trans-Pacific deal the same privileged status,
according to the Thursday letter.
The big problem is that foreign
companies often have huge advantages over firms based in
In the
In the
The truth is that "free
trade" is a really bad deal for the average American worker. In the
emerging one world economic system, labor has become a global commodity and
Since
You would think that our politicians
would notice that our formerly great manufacturing cities are turning into hellholes.
For example, the following is how James Kunstler described
what he saw when he traveled through
Between
the ghostly remnants of factories stood a score of small cities and neighborhoods where the immigrants settled five
generations ago. A lot of it was foreclosed and shuttered. They were places of
such stunning, relentless dreariness that you felt depressed just imagining how
depressed the remaining denizens of these endless blocks of run-down shoebox
houses must feel. Judging from the frequency of taquerias
in the 1950s-vintage strip-malls, one inferred that the old Eastern European
population had been lately supplanted by a new wave of Mexicans. They had
inherited an infrastructure for daily life that was utterly devoid of conscious
artistry when it was new, and now had the special patina of supernatural rot
over it that only comes from materials not found in nature disintegrating in
surprising and unexpected ways, sometimes even sublimely, like the sheen of an
oil slick on water at a certain angle to the sun. There was a Chernobyl-like
grandeur to it, as of the longed-for end of something enormous that hadn't
worked out well.
The economic guts of this country are
being ripped to shreds right in front of our eyes.
Overall, more than 56,000 manufacturing
facilities in the
That number is so crazy that it is
hard to fully grasp.
The truth is that the "free
trade" agenda of globalists such as
Barack Obama is absolutely devastating our economy.
There are hundreds of statistics
which prove this. I don't have space in this article to reproduce them
all, but if you are interested in examining many of them I recommend checking
out the following articles....
1) 35
Facts About The Gutting Of America’s Industrial Might
That Should Make You Very Angry
2) 47
Signs That China Is Absolutely Destroying America On
The Global Economic Stage
3) America
Is Being Transformed From A Wealthy Nation Into A Poor
Nation At Breathtaking Speed
4) 17
Facts About The Decline Of The U.S. Auto Industry That
Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
5) If
You Are A Blue Collar Worker In America You Are An
Endangered Species
6) The
Worst In The World – The U.S. Balance Of Trade Is
Mind-Blowingly Bad
When you combine a market that has
expensive labor with markets that have ultra-cheap labor, it is inevitable that
large numbers of jobs will migrate to the areas that have the ultra-cheap
labor.
This isn't rocket science.
That is why "Buy American"
laws are such a good thing. They help to protect American jobs.
But even if you do not work in an
industry where large numbers of jobs are being sent out of the country, the
loss of jobs still affects you. The millions of Americans that are being
displaced from jobs that have been sent overseas end up applying for other
kinds of jobs. So they become your
competition. This increases the demand for the jobs that remain and it
keeps wages down.
As I wrote about the other day, 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession
were middle class jobs. Many of those jobs have been replaced by low
income jobs, but you can't support a family on a low income job.
The Obama administration tells us
that the unemployment rate is going down, but the truth is that there are now almost 101 million working age Americans that do
not have jobs.
Instead of looking at the
"unemployment rate" which is manipulated so much, what I prefer to do
is to look at the "employment rate". And
sadly, the percentage of Americans with a job has been steadily
declining. The following are the percentages of working age Americans
with a job during April during the past six years....
April 2007: 63.0%
April 2008: 62.7%
April 2009: 59.8%
April 2010: 58.7%
April 2011: 58.4%
April 2012: 58.4%
Some Americans have decided to escape
the lousy job market by going back to school. Others have decided to
retire early. Yet others have decided to become full-time dependents of
the government, and a shocking number have decided to
try to get on to the Social Security disability rolls.
But most Americans that are
unemployed just want to get back to work. Many suffer in complete anonymity
and many never take a single penny from the government. They just want
someone to hire them so that they can put in an honest day of work for an
honest day of pay once again.
Even if you still have a good job, it
could be gone tomorrow. This point was underscored by a comment that a
reader identified as "DaytoDay" left on a recent article....
Well,
I can relate to this, I just lost my job Tuesday. I worked for Uhaul and on the DAY that I became eligible for my benefits
and 401k they canned me, exactly 90 days.
So,
it’s just another reminder that those who work for corporations are nothing
more than numbers. It’s sad reality, they don’t care
if you have a family to feed, they don’t care about your bills, and they damn
sure don’t care about quality…
I
was notified while working, and was instantly let go, up until that point,
there had been no warnings, no emails, no conferences,
nothing… They simply fired me to avoid paying the benefits and 401k that was
would have been entitled to.
And
to think, this is the reward for being a good hard worker?
Other Americans are not able to find
any work at all. This is especially true for young Americans. Millions upon millions of
hard working Americans are graduating from college only to find that the
"real world" can be very cruel.
For example, just check out the
comment that a reader named "Simon" left on one of my recent articles....
I
graduated from a top university just after the Collapse of 2008 (Class of ’09).
I had already seen the number of customers at my college job go way down in
that year. Got my four-year degree, had good grades, good work record. Now I
live in south FL and I can’t even get a job in fast food, there is so much
competition for minimum-wage jobs. No one wants to hire me to wait tables or
bag groceries because I have a prestigious degree. The only thing I got out of
college was 10 grand in debt, which is actually quite small (I came from a poor
family, so I got a lot of free tuition to bribe me to be part of the university
indoctrination). Good thing I defaulted on my loans a year or two ago or I
would be in worse trouble. I just throw out all their threatening letters and
never answer their calls- my friend told me it would work, and it did. Of course
I’m no longer a “good citizen”- I don’t earn money, don’t pay taxes, don’t have
health insurance, my credit is horrible, I’ll never buy a home or a new car—but
who cares?
Millions of other Americans that have
lost their jobs have been forced to take whatever they can get. A reader
identified as "Gary2" recently left a comment on one of my articles
describing what his family has been through....
Check
this out—I had 12 years as a good worker (regional manager level position)
several promotions-steller reviews-which I kept
copies of BTW) regular good pay increases heck I even saved a persons life, got
a big award plack for it, pictures with everyone etc
and 4 months later was downsized–no warning no thanks for helping them pass
many JACHO inspections (I was a regional manager for a hospital chain) nothing.
Just that we decided to outsource your entire department and that you are no
longer needed.
So
now I get to be grossly underemployed making 1/2 of what I used to make with NO
benefits. My wife is no longer a stay at home raise the kids
mom and is also working. Together we still make less than I did on my own. This
sucks.
As millions upon millions of
Americans suffer deeply month after month, it is creating a volcano of anger
and frustration that could absolutely devastate our society at some
point. A reader identified as "Cinderella Man" left the
following comment on a recent article....
If
anyone thinks that almost 50 million Americans on food stamps is a sign of
recovery and pardon my language but you have **** for brains. The other day I
went shopping and I spent $170 on my ten bags of food and I watched a man and
his daughter ring up ten packs of cheap balogna he
meekly asked the clerk if those were the 10 for 10 deal
and she said yes. Then the Dad said to the daughter “I hope you like it were
going to be eating it till we bust!” This is what our world has come to. A man
is feeding his kid trying to stretch their meager food stamp budget by eating balogna for several meals. I couldnt
help but think of the movie of my namesake Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe
when his wife was frying balogna for every meal back
during the first Great Depression. Ive seen it all in these past 4 years. From beautiful women in souplines and ****** hotels to living in my car and
watching inflation destroy all of our lives. We are all 9 meals from anarchy.
Sadly, thousands upon thousands more good jobs
are being lost each and every month.
But our politicians continue to
integrate us even more deeply into the emerging one world economic
system. Huge numbers of jobs will continue to leave this nation and the
standard of living for most American workers will continue to decline.
So have any of you ever had your job
shipped out of the country? Feel free to post a comment with your
thoughts below....’
