The Clinton’s financial lovechild, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been a disaster for the American worker. Many good, stable manufacturing jobs were sent to Mexico as a result of the NAFTA deal that president Bill Clinton famously approved twenty-four years ago.
To this day, domestic companies are still clamoring to shrug off their American workforces- who expect fair pay and benefits. These workers cannot compete with Mexican laborers who haven’t any such expectations.
The history of the American job market has been a painfully slow and steady downward spiral since then.
So, what more can we expect from a new Clinton administration?
This is a difficult question to answer considering that the modern, global version of NAFTA- the TPP would likely come with a Hillary Clinton presidency- was negotiated in complete secrecy. The released documents are loaded with reams of jargon, and the clearest information we have has come from Wikileaks.
Despite all this, we have managed to learn quite a lot about the TPP. For one thing, Donald Trump is dead set against it. We also know that the TPP comes with some convenient provisions for the Obama administration such as fast-track approval- which means there will be no arguing allowed in Congress once they have made up their minds about whether or not to approve it.
But we may learn a lot about the mysterious provisions of the TPP by looking at the practice version, NAFTA. For starters, analysts estimate that the American workforce has lost over 700,000 jobs in the first 17 years of NAFTA.
Business interests called the deal a “miracle” as it allowed them to dump American middle-class workers for Mexican workers who require much less pay and benefits.
Worse, the losses haven’t been isolated to one industry or region. The US economy has lost jobs in every sector, industry, and state leaving the American worker in increasingly dire circumstances.
Today, jobless numbers are a point that’s hotly debated. This is due to the fact that the numbers can easily be manipulated, and the president has earned a reputation for citing the numbers in ways that suit him.
There are two number sets one can quote when striving to come up with a statement on current job rates. They are the true number of people currently taking unemployment benefits, and the actual number of people not employed.
The first can be fudged a little as any number can, but the second is open to wild speculation- and those quoting it can speculate in any way which suits their agenda.
When pressured to come up with a defense of the NAFTA agreement, the Clintons, and the Obama administration quote the numbers low. When they are looking for an argument against the policies and actions of their opponents, they quote it high.
Sadly, this is just the same sort of mealy-mouthed tactics we can expect from the proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership which threatens to send even more American jobs overseas.
The looming TPP is a deal struck with countries making up over 40% of the global gross domestic product and is poised to send an amount of jobs overseas that would make the damage done by NAFTA look like a flesh wound.
Most Americans are unaware that in the last eight years, we have been making deals similar to this with very little media attention or resistance. The best well know is the U.S.-Korea Free-Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).
This pact went through almost entirely under the radar, largely because it deals with only one country, affects a limited amount of industries, and because South Korea has one of the least intimidating reputations of any foreign nation.
They are, in reality, though, a highly modern and industrialized nation with a vibrant consumer culture and an education system that is rapidly making the US ashamed to show its face at MENSA International conventions.
It’s no secret that the Obama presidency and the Clintons have very little daylight between them. The secret meetings of President Obama over the TPP deal and the suspicious provisions of it should be a preview of the criminal level of unlawful easement of which Hillary Clinton can be expected to avail herself.
The possibilities of a new Clinton Administration, emboldened by Hillary’s being let off the hook on so many criminal and treasonous sticking points- are frightening.
The possibility of a Trump administration brings hope, hope that justice will finally shine on the Clintons, and hope for an end to the economy-busting foreign trade deals of the George Soros-funded Left.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
