Re: CAFTA & NAFTA

I think that most Americans would say that they are for free and fair trade, too. But they're probably more for retaining as many U.S. jobs as possible. Yes, many jobs — regardless of NAFTA or CAFTA — would've exited and will exit the country, but now we're just encouraging this practice, aren't we? I can't envision a nation of nothing but consumers sustaining itself for long. We all can't sell each other Chinese DVD players or Big Macs for a living.


And who exactly is benefiting from these company decisions to exit the U.S.? The ones at the top who obviously don't care that they're actually destroying their own customer base. Without a job, a laid off textile worker has no choice but purchase the cheaper '$0.05 an hour' product. It's a vicious cycle, but who cares? Certainly not the company heads who get to reduce salary budgets while they give themselves bonuses for getting the company back on track. It's really sad.

Andy said: "Let's fact it, us Americans are to be blamed for the loss of those jobs because we want quality goods for a cheap price... If we would start buying American, then those jobs would come back over here to the good ol' USA."

You're right, except that I'm not sure if we're always concerned with quality. We're always concerned with cheap, though. But now please direct me to where I can buy 'all-American' for everything I need. We can't truly buy American now, because there's not much left to buy! Go shopping and try to find an American-made television or a pair of sneakers. It may take a while.