Global Free Trade = Increased US Unemployment
Last week, in "A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste," I wrote that despite our
current unemployment crisis, neither Obama, nor the Democrat Party, nor the
Republican Party could or would "create more jobs". The reason was fairly simple:
"There will be no legitimate 'job creation' in this country until we restore tariffs and
thereby cause manufacturers who left the USA for Mexico, China and India to return
their factories to the USA.
"So long as we have global free trade, real jobs will continue to flow out of the
USA and into third world countries. So long as we have global free trade, the only ‘job
creation’ gov-co will capable of providing will be even more government employment.
Such gov-co ‘employment’ is really just a glorified form of welfare in that our new govco
‘employees’ make no productive contribution to society.
"U.S. unemployment is rising because the leadership of both the Republican
and Democratic parties have been captured by globalists. Gov-co is therefore
determined to foster the globalist agenda of global free trade and one-world
government, even though those objectives will necessarily mean the destruction of our
economy, our standard of living, and perhaps even our nation.
"So long as America participates in global free trade, it is virtually impossible for
either major political party to create any significant number of real jobs in this country.
"We, the People, want real jobs that produce real products (not gov-co welfare jobs
that produce nothing but parasites and more debt)—and that means we must restore
industry to the USA. The only way to restore industry is to abandon Global Free Trade
and New World Order, and restore high tariffs so as to force companies to relocate
manufacturing plants now in China, back into the U.S..
"When industrial factories return, so will jobs. Until the factories return, there
will be no new jobs. Until the factories (and jobs) return, a genuine economic
recovery is not possible and the U.S. economy must continue to spiral downward into
a lower and lower standard of living."
My previous explanation is consistent with Ross Perot's warning (during his
presidential campaign in A.D. 1992) that if Congress passed the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), we'd hear a "giant sucking sound" as millions of jobs are
drained out of the U.S. economy.
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The American people, in their infinite wisdom, ignored Perot’s warning and
elected Bill Clinton. Two years later, our federal government ratified NAFTA—the first
big step into Global Free Trade.
In hindsight, Mr. Perot's warning was wrong in this regard—there was no "giant
sucking sound" when the jobs left the USA. But American factories (no longer
protected by high tariffs from cheap foreign labor) were nevertheless forced to relocate
into 3rd world countries and so the jobs (as Perot warned) were sucked out of the U.S.
But the sound of that "suction" was largely hushed by the creation of millions of new
government jobs. Result? The American people didn't really notice the loss of our
industry and our jobs until now.
Today, according to ProPublica, we know that:
"The unemployment insurance system is in crisis. A record 20 million Americans
collected unemployment benefits last year, and so far 25 states have run out of funds
and been forced to borrow from the federal government, raise taxes or cut benefits.
[O]nly a handful of states had built up reserves sufficient to weather the Great
Recession. [As a result,] 25 states have borrowed more than $25 billion to keep
benefits flowing after their trust funds ran dry.
"In many other states the situation is deteriorating fast. Arizona, Colorado,
Hawaii, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Vermont
will find themselves in the red within six months.
"Some states have focused the pain, like Virginia, where unemployed seniors
who also receive Social Security face steep benefit cuts. Other states, like
Pennsylvania, have taken a broader approach: all unemployment beneficiaries will
receive 2.4 percent smaller checks starting this month.
"businesses in 36 states face tax increases this year, ranging from a few
dollars per worker to more than a thousand. Six states have moved to cut, freeze or
otherwise restrict benefits, a number that is likely to increase."
Q #1: As the cost of unemployment insurance increases for businesses, how many of
those businesses will be driven out of business or forced to relocate to Mexico, China
or India?
Q #2: If rising unemployment insurance costs cause businesses to close or relocate
overseas, won't rising unemployment costs necessarily cause even more
unemployment?
Qs #3, 4 & 5: What do you suppose will happen in this country when 1)
unemployment continues to rise; and 2) the unemployment insurance funds are
exhausted? How will the unemployed feed and clothe themselves and their children?
Will the nation be exposed to chaos and political anarchy?
• The unemployment problem is not unique to the United States. According to the
Associated Press, the U.N.'s International Labor Organization (UN-ILO) recently
warned that the hoped-for economic "recovery" could be "jobless". In other words, the
U.N. has warned that if and when there is an economic "recovery," that recovery may
not include the creation of new jobs or the restoration of previous jobs now lost to
unemployment.
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More, the UN-ILO advised that, globally, about "Twenty-seven million people lost their
jobs in 2009." But note where most of these jobs were lost: "About 12 million [44%] of
the newly unemployed were in North America, Japan and Western Europe"
Thus, although unemployment increases were not confined to the U.S., those
increases were disproportionally among the formerly "industrialized" countries of
Europe, Japan and the U.S.
Why? Because the governments of the several industrialized western nations have
been captured by globalists. Result? The governments of the several "industrialized"
western nations have conspired to betray the best interests of their own people to
support Global Free Trade, New World Order, and One-World Government.
In order to achieve One-World Government, the several governments of the
industrialized west entered into Global Free Trade treaties like NAFTA. These
globalists have cut their national tariffs, exposed their relatively wealthy people to
direct competition from cheap foreign labor, and thereby forced their own industries to
relocate to 3rd world countries.
When the industrialized nations' industries relocated to 3rd world countries,
they took the industrialized nations' industrial jobs with them. Result? Just as Ross
Perot warned 18 years ago, a massive number of jobs have been "sucked out" of the
U.S. (and Europe and Japan). The formerly "industrialized" western nations are now
de-industrialized, and their economies and standards of living are collapsing.
"The UN-ILO also reported that it expected unemployment to remain high through
2010, with perhaps an additional 3 million people in the rich world losing their jobs"
Note that UN-ILO report implicitly predicts that unemployment for the "rich world" (the
formerly industrialized nations of Europe, Japan and the U.S.) will rise in 2010 from 12
million to 15 million an average increase in unemployment rates of 25%.
A 25% increase in U.S. unemployment would raise the "official" rate of 10% to almost
13%. But some credible sources contend that real U.S. unemployment is between
17% to 22%. If they're right, a 25% increase rate might kick real unemployment up to
between 21% and 28%. (During the Great Depression, unemployment peaked around
25%.)
"To address the problem, the ILO wants governments to adopt a two-pronged
approach of employment creation and better unemployment benefits,"
It is to laugh.
Qs #1 & 2: How can the western industrialized countries "create jobs" without
reindustrializing? How can they reindustrialize without either raising tariffs, or reducing
their peoples' wages and standard of living to a level comparable to that of Mexico or
even China?
Q #3: How can we create "better unemployment benefits" within the "rich countries"
without increasing the costs of doing business in the "rich countries" and thereby
driving more businesses (and jobs) from the "rich countries" to the 3rd world
countries?
The UN-ILO also admitted that the true scope of the unemployment problem was
much worse that some statistics suggest because "over 600 million workers and their
families were surviving on less than $1.25 a day and another 200 million were
hovering just above the international poverty line." In other words, global
unemployment is not simply the 12 million who reportedly have no jobs whatsoever—
it's actually about 812 million when we include the 800 million who, technically, have
jobs that are so low-paying that the "workers" are barely able to survive.
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I recognize that global poverty is a terrible thing. But I also recognize that most of
those 800 million (over five times the number of American workers) who are currently
working at or below the international poverty line would be happy to work for $2.50 per
day and would be ecstatic if they were paid just $10 per day.
Thus, the UN-ILO statistics imply that if each American worker were making just $10
per hour, there'd still be five foreign workers who were eager and even desperate to
take that job for just $10 per day. Think about that. There are at least five people on
this earth who would gladly do your job all day in return for just one hour of your pay.
If that thought doesn't scare you, you need to cut back on your medication.
Perhaps some economists or politicians can explain how 150 million American workers
can reasonably expect keep jobs at $10 an hour when there are 800 million foreign
workers eager to take those jobs for $10 a day. I can't provide such explanation. I
can't even imagine such explanation.
There are hundreds of millions of people around the world who would kill to
take your job for a fraction of your pay. How can such pressure be resisted in a world
of Global Free Trade? I submit that it cannot be resisted—except with higher tariffs.
The only way you're going to hang onto your job and your standard of living is if you
are protected from the impoverished hoards of the 3rd world by high, national tariffs.
The only way you're going to give your children a prosperous future that includes the
"American Dream" (that each generation enjoys a higher standard of living than that of
the previous generation), is by protecting your children now by abandoning Global
Free Trade and the New World Order and restoring high national tariffs. The only way
that you can protect your grandchildren from abject poverty and a dramaticallyshortened
life expectancy, is by restoring high national tariffs now.
• In this week's State of the Union address, President Obama said, "We face a
deficit of trust-deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works-that have been
growing for years."
No kidding? Gee, who’d’ve thought?
But President Obama also said, "Jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010. People are
out of work. They are hurting. They need our help."
Well, that's great. But how will the globalist Obama "create more jobs" for the hurting
American people without restoring high tariffs, abandoning Global Free Trade and the
New World Order, and bringing industry back to America? (And how, pray tell, does
Washington plan to "restore trust" in gov-co by lying about job creation?)
In his speech, President Obama also reminded folks that he inherited a mountain of
problems but that, after one year in office, "the worst of the storm has passed."
Really? The worst is over?
Really?!!
I don't think so. I can't even imagine how "the worst of the storm has passed" so long
as our government is committed to Global Free Trade, low tariffs, and the continuing,
inevitable loss of even more millions of American jobs. How is it even possible for
there to be a "recovery" that doesn't restore lost jobs?
Obama's lying. He has to know that he can't create any real jobs without restoring
high tariffs. And so long as that's true, we might get more gov-co jobs, but we won't
have any more real (industrial) jobs, our standard of living must continue to decline,
the worst is yet to come and you, dear reader, had better. Buckle up.