Congress will soon be asked to approve of the United States’ entry into the Western Hemisphere 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas. However, already existing “free trade,” such as the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization have cost us millions of jobs.
The Bush administration and many members of Congress continue to boast about new jobs being created in our country; although respected economist Paul Craig Roberts countered these claims by stating that the jobs being created … “are concentrated in low-paying domestic services” adding, “Our economy is not creating jobs that are part of the high-tech global economy, i.e. those held by America’s middle class (that) is under heavy attack and is being programmed for extinction.”
Recently the Christian Science Monitor reported the staggering fact that free trade is the major reason why the number of manufacturing jobs in America has shrunk from 19.3 million in 1980 to 14.6 million over the last 25 years. Regarding this matter, Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina stated, “The world power that loses its manufacturing capacity is no longer a world power.”
Obviously, a strong and independent nation is one that manufactures what it needs. A nation that gets its goods from elsewhere becomes dependent on other countries, some of which are our self-admitted enemies, such as communist China!
Creation of the planned FTAA will result in even more middle class jobs fleeing our nation, so Congress must be pressured to vote no on the FTAA.
WM. DUDSON BACON, M.D.
Lynnwood
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