Overalls and Appliances

No problem at all. Thinking about free trade is about like thinking about the Mexican immigration problem - it is complicated with a lot of pros and cons on both sides.

I don't like it one bit either that health care has gotten so high. If I or my family were really faced with a huge medical problem, I'd seriously consider taking them to Mexico for treatment. My experience has been that super medical care can be had there for very cheap.

I'm in the computer field - I've also personally and professionally seen the extent to which outsourcing has affected jobs here in America. But whether a person likes it or not really doesn't matter - we just have to find a way to live with it.

In both free trade and immigration, I am aware of the costs to American citizens - but at the same time - when most of the poorest Americans are still far better off than the vast majority in many other countries - I can't help but feel extremely blessed for being an American. Almost to the point that I feel it can only be morally right to "share the wealth" if we can.

$20 to the average middle class American doesn't mean much, but to someone who has absolutely nothing, it is a HUGE thing.

But there again, me feeling one way or another about that doesn't count for much - it is just the reality of the world we live in. Economics is going to be the biggest driver of how manufacturing gets redistributed around the world - politics will also be a large part.

I'm just bitter against the unions because of all the stories of concrete in the plumbing, sand in the hydraulic systems, sugar in the gasoline, not to mention the muggings and murders, etc... To me, that is nothing more than mafia/gang extortion - pure and simple.

And I often wonder to what extent it has helped cause the off-shoring exodus of manufacturing from America that you spoke of.

I am thankful every day for being able to live in America.

Howard

They included a packet of photos of the guys making the mixers - they were in a huge unlighted (just large windows) factory with overalls on, gloves, fur hats, etc...

None of those guys were making per day what any American worker would take per hour.

There was no way we could have bought at that price from any American manufacturer.

Like it or not - there is a WORLD full of people willing to work much cheaper than most American factory workers.

Then on top of that, some American unions started turning into mafia controlled gangs with coercion tactics just as bad as the average terrorist, so what else is going to happen???

OF COURSE manufacturers are going to look for greener pastures. That is just reality.

That is the heart of free enterprise - and free enterprise is a huge part of what has made the United States of America the greatest country the world has ever seen.

Howard Henderson
Stratford, TX

We made our own bed though. The world changed and we (business and employees) werent looking. It blew me away to hear that GM spends more per car on employee and retiree health care than on steel. The only wealth that is ever created comes from the mines, soils, fisheries, wells, and forests. Everybody else just trades money around. Our industry lost sight of that.