The only problem was that NAFTA happened. If you wonder why I am so pissed off at NAFTA and its evil twin, CAFTA, it is very personal. You see, once NAFTA came into play, my brother became what they call 'supernumerary' - he was unecessary, because quality electronic equipment was no longer made here, was no longer - could no longer - be repaired here. Built in, cheap obsolescence, made overseas and sold to the eagerly salivating consumers of America by Chinese and other third world countries. My brother was unemployed - and he had a wife and children to support. He didn't quit his knowledge, his history, his education, or his country - they quit on him. So what did he do?
Well, he was classified as "too old" by most employers (who BTW never said it, merely wouldn't hire him, or would hire him briefly and turn him loose). Now, Jim is a healthy old boy - still runs everywhere he goes, still is active in his church and his community - he snowplows his elderly neighbors' driveways in the winter - still cross-country skis, still is funny and open and friendly. Even after he started getting Social Security, he wanted to work. So what did he do?
Jim's an over the road truck driver. He delivers all over the country, in all weathers, in all traffic. He is 68 this year, still sharp as a tack, still incisive, still curious and still learning. Oh, his hearing's a little shot; can't hear out of his left ear even with a hearing aid. Bt his right ear works, his hands, legs, and mind still work, and he is still a tough bird who refuses to accept defeat.
Friday he called me to tell me he would be coming 'close by' our new home on Sunday - driving down the Interstate through North Platte, only 164 miles away, our route to North Platte spanning over 2-lane roads. So we went to meet him today for lunch. What fun it was to see him again! And to watch him show off his big rig, so proud that he could work and support his wife and their country lifestyle.
Want to know why I have very little sympathy for those who give up because they can't achieve their goals right away, can't get the job they want, can't have all they want, right now, and who just sit back, give up, and whine? Want to know why I am so rude to people who whimper with every excuse why they can't live the way they think that they deserve, and who demand that others 'should' work and provide the things that they should be doing for themselves? Want to know why I don't think it's right for my hard-earned cash to go to support the excusers, the whiners, those who look for every one to blame for their lives except themselves? Look at this balding, aging, laughing guy, who last year refused to let even cancer beat him, and tell me why I should feel sorry for those who insist that they "can't". Because I simply - don't.
7 comments:
Confused. Neither NAFTA nor CAFTA have had anything to do with China's electronics boom. NAFTA = North America Free Trade Agreement (Mexico, U.S., Canada). And CAFTA, which is actually called DR-CAFTA, includes Dominican Republic (hence the DR), and five Central American countries. Except for in the sense that these free trade agreements relate to greater trade and globalization, there is no connection to goods from China. You're mixing apples and oranges. Besides, free trade agreements are just the end result of years of outsourcing and structural changes that the U.S. has been putting into place. The damage was done long before NAFTA and certainly CAFTA went into place.
My extended family members found themselves in the same boat as your brother Jim. Central America Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement basically caused them their jobs in the long run because Product A is made with twenty-five percent of the product completed in America. After which the said product is shipped off to Mexico where it becomes seventy-five percent completed then sent back to America to be finished off. A "huge chunk" of my family members were responsible for that fifty percent that was given to those workers in Mexico. The part that really irks me is that the products that are made in Mexico are not usually used from Mexican consumer consumption, so what is the point of sending products to be made at different countries that in turn do not even use the product that is being made on their soil at the cost of taking jobs from those who need it?
And see, that's the difference between those of us who follow the Party line and believe what we are told - and the ones who have an intimate knowledge of how things REALLY work because we experience them...
Thanks, Don, for explaining it better than I did - and connecting the dots!
You should brush up on global economics before blogging about it.
What 'anonymous' said was in no way in line with the Party line, which says that free trade benefits all.
What he/she said is that neither NAFTA or CAFTA caused these situations you've both described. They were each just free trade agreements that continued neoliberal policies put into place years ago. Those reforms, sometimes called structural adjustments, forced Mexico and Central America to open their economies, which made them ripe for investment from U.S. and other foreign firms. The FTAs came years later and were, to use a bad analogy, the icing on the cake.
The problem with your statement is that it's a knee-jerk superficial reaction to acronyms you've heard floating around "CAFTA" or "NAFTA." You've done little to explain the true problem with our trade politics. You owe it to your readers to do a little more digging if you're writing for the public, particularly considering the fact that you claim "intimate knowledge" and title your blog "I See Stupid People." The only person that looks stupid in this situation is you.
Gee, Bob, maybe if you'd actually READ the blog, you'd see that it was not a discussion of CAFTA and NAFTA but a discussion of how one person was working instead of whining. (And, if you care to extrapolate it outward, how he had to go to work in the service economy rather than the creative and inventive production that used to define the American worker.)
I have discussed CAFTA and NAFTA in the past, and made some of the same points as you indicate. But quite frankly a blog is too short for an in-depth debate between Free-market and Kenyesian debaters! Rather like a snack instead of a steak dinner... it may stave off a craving but not the permanent hunger..
If you came here to prove to everyone how brilliant you are you have done so. Sorry you missed the point of the whole thing.
I agree with you on one point: What happened to your brother is a shame.
But I think what anonymous was trying to do is shed light on why it happens. And you beat up on him for it. Americans buried their heads in the sand for a long time while these changes were being put in place. Now we are lifting our heads up and we see NAFTA and CAFTA and start complaining. We should have been paying attention 20 years earlier. The best way to not repeat those types of mistakes is to explain them and learn from them. Blogging could be a great way to do that, because it's certainly ignored by the media. But when you discredit someone trying to add to the conversation, it's a disservice.
Oh, dear. You're another one of those people, aren't you? The ones who think that people will be educated, inspired, and uplifted to actually take the reins and ride the dark horse to victory, to change the world?
Oh, my. That is really too bad.
This is a social commentary. What you want (and have) is a political commentary. I did paid political commentary for 20 years, got a lot of people upset, got a lot of responses, good and bad. And I can tell you that neither your current nor my past political commentary, nor my current social commentary matter one whit. No not one. It is sound and fury, signifying nothing. If you don't believe it, all I can regretfully say to you is "Ron Paul".
Neither you, nor I, nor any other blog or blogger, will ever inspire people to get off their butts and do what needs to be done. The fact that you and I have had this conversation, all in one day, proves that... If you write to instill change, I'm happy for you if that is your belief. If you believe that the Green Man and the Moon control your flower garden, I'm happy for that belief, too, if it makes you feel better. I write simply because I want to, to please myself. Any thing else is pure folly and self-delusion. IMHO, of course. In my varied accomplishments today, I chopped wood for the woodstove, dehydrated apples, make a pot of homemade and grown beef stew, and helped teach a high school class about weather effects on zygonomic vs rhizonomic plant reproduction in my pasture... I didn't spend all day thinking about blogging. This is the least important thing I do... Thank God.
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