FlamingText

Comment on Rambling Rhodes

This is a comment filed on Ryan's website about a friend of his who had her job shipped to China and was required to train her replacement before she left. For some reason his comment engine rejected it so I'm posting it here. I preface this by saying that our politics differ rather dramatically on many issues* , but at least on this one there may be some common ground and that's why it's interesting to me.

The usual disclaimer: If political ranting bores you, just skip this one.

   I think back to Al Gore debating the pro-NAFTA case against Ross Perot more than a decade ago and it drives me up the wall. You know how I've said before that the supposed mortal enemies on either side of the left/right political divide in this country often agree on issues, but are prevented by the winner-take-all two-party system from coming together on those issues? This is perhaps the best example I can think of.

  I think most working Americans can now see the truth behind the "giant sucking sound" that Ross Perot predicted as a consequence of NAFTA. NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and more recently CAFTA have all helped to enable the global race to the bottom that's been afflicting labor markets while simultaneously signing away a fair piece of our national sovereignty. And I think if they were accurately told the facts, most Americans would've opposed them. And yet, there were the supposedly pro-labor Dem poster children Clinton and Gore back in the nineties stumping for those very things. Some of the strongest opposition at that time, besides that coming from Perot's one-man political movement, came from the extreme-right Buchanan wing of the GOP.

So in the 2000 election, still regarded as the most divisive and contentious presidential election in generations, voters had a choice between a NAFTA supporter and, uh, another one.

   It seems as long as politicians need to raise campaign funds from corporations that stand to make tremendous profits by shipping jobs overseas voters can expect to face more of these non-choices for the foreseeable future. And since agreements like the WTO and CAFTA subject all laws passed by member nations to "review" by non-elected international boards of regulators, even if the American people did pass laws to prevent this sort of thing those laws could be found in violation of those agreements and the WTO et al could levy huge penalties against the U.S. (This has, in fact, already happened with regards to tariffs and environmental regulations, among other things.)

Obviously, it makes me pig-biting mad.

As to your friend, she should explain to the trainees that simply hitting "save" isn't always enough, so to make sure, hit "Ctrl A," then "Ctrl X" and THEN "Ctrl S."

Posted by flamingbanjo at June 9, 2006 05:49 PM