-Caveat Lector-
Yes, we do need trade unions. And NAFTA is a harbinger of the end of the
American middle class. If you've read Ravi Batra's critique of free
trade, he points out that the "trickle-down" economic policies of the
Reagan years inevitably must end in class division...and an eventual
economic meltdown, sooner or later.
During the nineteen twenties, the
wealth got concentrated at the top, while the other sectors of the
American economy grew poorer.. Inevitably, Americans didn't have the
disposable income to buy the products to keep the system going.. a
similar dynamic is taking place now... although most Americans are able to
stay in "the middle class" by going into debt.
The unions help keep some of the money(power) in the hands of working
people...
Also, an effective system of tariffs and the enforcement of anti-monopoly
legislation would help somewhat.... But when there are no restraints at
the top....and many restraints on the bottom, the system inevitably gets
out of whack.
We became a "free trade" country under President Nixon.
NAFTA is only one brick in the NWO that has helped push the country into
decline. (Of course, some of the people on this list will argue just the
opposite...that we are in an era of unprecedented growth and prosperity
thanks to "free trade.") But for a few short years, I lived and worked
in a country that has the very very rich and the very very poor (Mexico)..
and comparing the two countries (US and Mexico), the US is, of course, a
more desirable place to live. Why? Because of our political tradition
of tolerance, diversity, respect for the rights of the individual, and
the idea that it's ok for ordinary people to possess wealth... In Mexico,
the elites fear and distrust the people...it's a police state that
consistently violates the rights of its own people..... That is why I was
disturbed when former President George Bush went to Mexico and claimed
that Mexico City was his idea of the ideal city of the future... a land
of the very rich and the very poor...
On Fri, 25 Dec 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> In a message dated 98-12-24 18:15:40 EST, you write:
>
> << The remaining manufacturing jobs are under severe pressure. While factory
> jobs in the United States pay, on average, more than $18 an hour,
> maquiladora workers in high-tech foreign plants in Mexico earn about a
> buck and a half an hour.>>
>
> Anyone know where they got this estimate... Since retiring from the USAF I've
> only recently been promoted to technician and I don't make near $18 an hour.
> They must have gotten the numbers from a union state, certainly not Colorado.
>
> <<Employers have made explicit use of the threat to move to Mexico to beat
> back union organizing efforts, as well as to deny demands for wage
> increases. Cornell researcher Kate Bronfenbrenner has documented a
> tripling of employer plant-closing threats during union organizing drives
> since NAFTAUs adoption.>>
>
> The company I worked for a few years ago (Digital) sent our hard disk drive
> manufacturing business to Malaysia.... lost a lot of money, cost of the
> building, cost of providing education (2 years college and unemployment
> benefits) for displaced workers, as well as losing the business ( they sold
> the hard disk and tape drive business, later sold out to Compaq... what little
> remained of the business). Too bad this doesn't happen to more businesses.
>
> <<Meanwhile, NAFTA has simultaneously failed to deliver the touted benefits
> for Mexico. In a kind of mutant industrialization, NAFTA has turned huge
> swaths of the country into a processor of goods for export to the United
> States. The nationwide export processing zone model has proved an abject
> failure. There are few linkages between the export factories and the rest
> of the economy. Small Mexican business has collapsed. WorkersU
> productivity is up 36 percent since NAFTA went into effect, but Mexican
> wages fell 29 percent between 1993 and 1997. >>
>
> The Corporations got what they wanted in Mexico... more work for less pay, but
> some people still don't believe we need unions... they certainly need unions
> in Mexico.
>
> Regards,
> Bob Stokes
>
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
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