(5/18/2005) America is losing it's economic security, and therefore it's national security, because of bad trade deals, and because of tax incentives that encourage U.S. companies to close down their U.S. operations and relocate them to foreign countries. Now, Bush wants to expand free trade to a dozen other poor countries with CAFTA, which is very similar to NAFTA and will be equally harmful for America's middle class. 

I can remember a time when almost all the radios and televisions were manufactured in America, but now they are all made in Japan, Korea, or China. I can remember a time when American car manufactures were the best in the world, but now Japan, Germany, Korea, and soon China, are increasingly dominating the auto industry. And the big three American auto manufactures have moved almost all of their production plants outside America.

Since Bush has taken office this corporate exodus has accelerated and it has resulted in the loss of over 2 million manufacturing jobs. These were jobs that paid high hourly wages and benefits like health care, pension plans, and overtime pay. However, now the largest employers in the U.S. are Wal-Mart and McDonalds, and both these companies are notorious for paying low wages with few benefits.

The reason America is always on the losing end of trade deals is because we have a growing corruption crisis in our government. Unrestrained campaign contributions and unregulated revolving door personnel have turned our dominate market positions into market position that are "for sale" to the highest bidder. It appears that our trade policies are "for sale" just like all the other legislation coming out of Washington D.C. these days.

Just look at how Japan has successfully penetrated our markets and keep their own markets closed to us. Not only have they penetrated our markets but they have completely taken many of them over. They have done this buy hiring our x-government officials to act as lobbyist for them in the U.S. Congress. They also set up U.S. based subsidiaries that give large political contributions and set up PACs that influence our political system and trade legislation. Now other countries, like China, are copying Japan's infiltration and market domination strategies, and as a result the U.S. has a huge trade imbalance with China.

The "free trade" ideology of the U.S. government is very anti-middle class, anti-worker, anti-environment, and anti-government revenues. It pits America's high paid, high benefit workers against low paid, low benefit workers around the globe, and it exploits much lower environmental regulations in poor foreign countries.

Up until the Nixon administration the U.S. dollar was back by gold. This gold standard was based on the very common sense economic polices of old Europe known as "mercantilism". Mercantilism is a economic theory based on international trade that says if your country is exporting more than it is importing then your country's gold reserves are increasing. These increasing gold reserves meant that the people in that country would realize increased opportunities and a higher standard of living. And the opposite is also true. If you imports exceed your exports your country's gold reserves would shrink. That is the situation the U.S. currently finds itself, with huge trade deficits that appear to growing at an exponential rate and a middle class that is getting squeezed downwards.

The WTO is another death nail in the coffin of the middle class, and the earth's environment. The WTO encourages companies to exploit the poor and the environment, and it pits the haves' against the have-nots'. It's policies and agenda are clearly pro-corporate, anti-worker, and anti-environment. The WTO threatens sanctions and penalties against any countries, including the U.S., that pass legislation to protect it's markets from imports, including anti-dumping laws. Or that supports it's industries with subsidies.

The WTO is an independent organization that dictates what America's trade policies can be, and it has tools to enforce those dictates. For example, the WTO wants to open America to internet gambling. The WTO encourages U.S. based companies to outsource their service sector jobs to other countries. The WTO does not want the American government to protect any of it's industries or it's workers needs. The WTO wants all governments to privatize all their social service task, deregulate all industries, and drop all trade barriers. Finally, the WTO is undemocratic, un-transparent, and unaccountable, and therefore the U.S. should have noting to do with it. The WTO wants there to be a global race to the bottom, and the American people, especially the middle class, does not want to win that race.

Bush, the people in his administration, and the Republicans in Congress are big supporter of this WTO race to the bottom, and the American people will be the losers if they get their way. Bush has been encouraging the outsourcing of U.S. workers to foreign countries. He is for opening our border to immigrants who want to work in America. He wants to expand free trade to several more poor countries. He has successfully pushed for and got deregulation legislation passed. He has been cutting social programs and privatizing a number of government operations. He is all for free market globalization. Finally, he does not believe the U.S. government should be in the business of providing the American people with social safety nets, unemployment benefits, minimum wage protections, or anything else that will soften the blows of the economic ups and downs that are common in a free market capitalist economy.

Clearly, Bush the Republicans are the enemies of the environment, the middle class, and our democracy and they must be stopped and held accountable. Since we are their enemies maybe we should all learn how to become their enemies, because the enemies of my enemies are my friends.