Jobs Wanted: Ending Rigged Trade = Jobs
August 3, 2011Today we launched a special three-part series on bringing jobs back to America.
How this came about is that one of the chiefs here at MSNBC asked me, “Dylan, how can America create jobs? Should we shrink government? Should we cut spending? Should we increase spending?
The answer — maybe all of the the above — maybe none of the above, because at this point, it’s the wrong question!
To create real jobs, a country must have more money coming in than going out. But we have the exact opposite, with much more money going out that we have coming in! Until we reverse that trillion-dollar trend, it is mathematically impossible to create sustainable jobs.
There are three main components that the government controls that determine the flow of money: Trade, Taxes, and Banking. I’ll be covering all three.
Let’s begin with Trade. If you look at the math of the so-called free trade agreements such as NAFTA from the Clinton Administration, they put our country at a disadvantage and force american CEO’s to do business that rewards their bottom line, and hurts the rest of us.
All the deals are aimed at making it easier and more profitable to export jobs, send money overseas and keep the cash offshore rather than invest it here at home. I want to use the firm Caterpillar as an example to illustrate this.
They now make a lot of heavy equipment in China. If they made it here like they used to, it would face a 25% tax from Chinese Government to import, but if they make it in China – NO TAX.
And by the way, Chinese imports to America are taxed at 2.5%. Now Caterpillar gets a giant discount on equipement build and sold in China. Jim Owens, the Chief of Caterpillar, his job is to make money for his company and shareholders. If you or I ran Caterpillar, we’d either export jobs and money to China to make the bottom line, or be fired.
Maybe if our government had the courage to level the playing field, the Jim Owens’s of the world would say “Let’s make it in America.”
But until then, it’s bye bye jobs and bye bye cash, in favor of highly profitable, rigged trade agreements for the profit of a few. We must level that playing field if we’re going to create jobs in America.
You can watch tomorrow’s segment live on “NewsNation” with Tamron Hall at 2PM ET.
Right on Dylan! We have got to fix these sweetheart (or stupid) trade agreements to get GDP back to this country. Mr. Trump has been very vocal about this–and I wholeheartedly agree. H.Ross Perot talked about it years back and was laughed off the stage. I think Perot is getting the last laugh now..
If the Government closed some of the overseas military bases: France, Italy, South Korea, etc. and shifted those troops (10's, perhaps hundreds of thousands) to US bases that money would shift back to America. Troops spending salaries, needing housing, expansion and creation of new bases.
We need tariffs period. End of story.
So is the idea, then, that Clinton signed NAFTA to appease corporate interests that wanted to fatten their profit margins overseas at the expense of American jobs? That's a strong indictment–why isn't anyone talking about it? I don't remember any efforts by Bush (or Obama, for that matter) to end NAFTA, so no one's hands look clean here…
Well some people have been saying that all along but the mainstream wasn't listening. I will add that the South America Latin migration is also a direct result of NAFTA flooding them with cheap corn and rice which wiped out farmers in central and south america as well as Haiti. We need to connect all of the dots.
Remember the primers Hilary said NAFTA should be fixed.
I was just listening to the Chris Mathews show and he played the tape of the senator, Oren Hatch, saying that the top 1% were already paying 38% income tax. Perhaps that is the initial percentage but it does not reflect all the deductiions and special breaks and even income that is not even taxed, you will find it is far less than what the average middle class american pays.
But the worst part of the senators statement was that the poor need to pay more. And he and his other republican cronies have the gall to scream class warfare being waged against them? I think we all know who is waging class warfare and these kind of statements show it. I submit that the middle class and poor have only ever wanted a fare and equitable share of the company THEY keep afloat but corporate America wants and does now pay far less than an equitable and fare income so they can line the executive pockets more and appease a wall street that is so far out of control I don't think we will ever save it. As far class in this country I think we have or are close to reverting to the old aristocratic/labor society of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Unions may have lost thier way, and I do believe they have but where would the american laborer be without them even today. If we don't stop them the republican and special interests in this country are going to show us to our detrement.
.( 2% of wealthy) The Wealthy in America do not pay 38%. Corp. America pays little to nothing, often paying out more for Lobbying fees, CEO pay and buying congressmen then they pay in taxes if at all. Their other benefits are the ones that must end. Those "incentives", that they just pocket should end. Handing billions to Oil should end as they're the wealthiest co on the planet already! If we cut tax benefits to American corp.'s which have more employees over seas then in side the country (here)..Maybe then they'll decide to invest in America. Bush tax cuts haven't produced a single job and in fact has lost many jobs. Americans need to wake up to this fact and stop buying into the propaganda the GOP have stated for over a decade..( while jobs left by the millions under Bush). That has to change. Corp. should either hire here or lose American tax benefits….The American tax payer must begin to also be "all about money and profit"..just as corp are, and punish those who build or hire elsewhere.
Why don't you discuss the corporate media's role and the consolidation of information led to further obfuscating facts and misinformation which is why a network like CNBC could "create" the Tea Party and then deny responsibility and ownership of that while standing in front of the Commodities market in Chicago. Or the fact that BOTH parties have been culpable. Get the authors of Off Center and Winner Takes All Politics to come on and discuss how BOTH parties have sold out America to retain their jobs as in Chuck Shumer or Chris Dodd.
"I still want to know what americans can do to stop all the unfairness."
First, listen to Radio Free Dylan Podcast RFD#18, RFD#62 and RFD#9. These podcast detail Trade and Tax issues. Second, get off of you backside and become active. I am not a Tea Party person, but their activism shows that the people can have a voice. Third, take the time to listen to Ron Paul and judge him by the substance of his message rather than the 30 sec. sound bite most politicians love. America needs leadership in order to get out of this mess and Ron Paul is the only Pres. candidate who has an intellectual understanding of the US problems. The current president is using the advice of people who got us into this mess and they are hoping for a miracle.
I have lived and worked Professionally in Asia for the last 10 years. I have watched as American Multinational Companies came into Asia looking for cheap manufacturing, and then open the Asia markets to their products. Obviously sucking jobs and capital out of the US with the full support of the American Government. I have raised the Red Flag with family and friends telling them that our government was sacrificing short term gains at the expense of long term economic security. I was told by family and freinds that the US economy is booming, and that my concerns where UNPATRIOTIC.
The US has now become a place where people who love their country and voice their concerns about government are labeled as UNPATRIOTIC; or even worse Terrorist.
Thank god for Dylan Ratigan! He is the only person in Media who has a firm grasp on the problems we face!!
Didn't we see this coming under the guise of a "global economy"? The US just hasn't come up with an answer yet. Isn't it best to make products as cheap as possible? Don't get me wrong I am an American and want what's best for us but give me an answer.
groups like Public Citizen are desperately trying to stop the THREE NEW FREE trade deals being pushed by Obama, the Chamber of Commerce, and the New York Times!! Please check out their "global trade watch" and join their efforts!
Dylan is the only person in the media who is willing to tell the truth about our institutions and government. I wish everyone would watch his show. His guests even have to be honest or he calls them out. Bravo!!
As a result of Nafta, we have Mexican trucks that have access to US highways as part of that agreement. As time has progresssed I see some of the real reasonns why Clinton had to sign it–it's the OIL STUPID. Mexico is the second largest supplier of oil to the United States. So to keep that supply coming, at whatever price is agreed upon, we have to agree with whatever the Mexican government feels is a fair (for the trade-off)– that is we (Mexico) want manufacturing jobs here and you must take our poor workers into your country and unless they're dangerous criminals, you have to take them in–give them all the rights of US citizens: health care, education–oh and even in-state college tuition if they want to put up a fuss about how they want to help this country etc. etc. And besides a large part of the United States actually belonged to Mexico and you Europeans are on our ancestral land. So that's where we're at–Nafta conceived under George HW Bush and signed off by Clinton, his close buddy, because of campaign contributions by the multi-national corporations to Cllinton–maybe to Bush too and they want their pound of flesh for that dirty campaign $.
The real question is why did we make these trade deals in the first place? Clinton may have signed them but I believe Congress approved them first. Wasn't that a Republican majority under the Newt? Were they delude by some neoclassical economists preaching "free trade" or was it really that the corporate elite wanted to move to China for lower wages and this was a good excuse? I mean really, didn't they know this would be the outcome? Was there no analysis? Who lobbied for this? The chamber of Commerce no doubt. I recall labor being opposed to this.
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