BK

Last fall, the economic report said that GDP rose 8%.
This was hailed as a victory.

However, the labor costs declined by 15%.

This meant that workers producing 8% more for 15% less. Corporations were ecstatic about this, but it meant workers were seeing benefits dissapear and getting lower and lower wages.

We are inching closer and closer to the Honduras way of life.



Here's some about the people in charge of CAFTA:

http://www.ustr.gov/about-ustr/officials.shtml


Chief:

Robert B. Zoellick , Ambassador, United States Trade Representative

Robert B. Zoellick assumed office as the 13th U.S. Trade Representative on February 7, 2001.

As U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Zoellick is a member of President Bush's Cabinet, with the rank of Ambassador, and serves as the President's principal trade policy adviser and chief trade negotiator.

During his tenure as U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Zoellick completed the negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization; developed a strategy to launch new global trade negotiations at the WTO meeting in Doha; completed Free Trade Agreements with Singapore, Chile, and Jordan, as well as the Vietnam Trade Agreement; launched Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Australia, Morocco, the five nations of Central America and the Dominican Republic, the five nations of the Southern African Customs Union, and Bahrain; and worked with Congress to pass the Trade Act of 2002, which included new Trade Promotion Authority.


Peter Frederick Allgeier
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative

Ambassador Peter F. Allgeier is the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). USTR is part of the Executive Office of the President. He was nominated for this position by President George W. Bush, and confirmed by the Senate on May 26, 2001.

frequentflyer

Dell is bringing their call center back to the US because of the problems they have had with language ect... However and this is a big HOWEVER, IBM just signed a contract that will affect 6000 employees here in the U.S. They are being outsourced to India. These guys make between 80-100K here and they are getting guys in India with Masters and sometimes PHD degrees making 20 - 30 K a yr. These companies don't care about jobs they just care about the bottom line. It is a big thing right now in the IT industry to outsource to India. It's cheaper and the programmers do not have to talk to customers or end users. They have liasons here to handle the communications with the respective business entities. It is ridiculous and unless government does something about it, we, the people of the United States, will lose. Dell bringing their call center back is a good first step, but they are only doing so because of end user / customer preception. This will not be the case with the higher paying IT jobs.
Something needs to be done and it needs to be done by the politicians NOW !!

Ric232

Bull$hit . . . ever heard of increasing productivity? They can accomplish more due to less work thanks to advancements in technology.

mlitefan

Yep...all you need to do is look at the advances in the farming industry to understand this.

How many "farmers" did we have 50 years ago vs. today?

mlitefan

And, contrary to popular belief, people don't start companies to provide jobs for others...they do it to make a profit.

That is the cold hard reality.

Danny_Ocean

Gee...we're losing telemarketing and call-center jobs to India. So what? They can have 'em.

Now, perhaps the people who "lost" these "high-paying" jobs will get an education in math or engineering so we can get back to kicking Japan's, China's and Germany's arse in design and production.

D. Ocean
Pompano Beach, FLA

mlitefan

Yep...That is the HUGE upside to all of this that almost never gets discussed.

GeoGraphics INC

All those jobs will soon be back here, because at the rate the people are coming to N. America there will be none left in the country to do them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reed Jensen

Absolutely!!! It was the Clinton administration that made China our "most favored trading nation"... They gave them that status for years... now all of our manufacturing jobs are being done in China... They said " it doesn't matter.... we don't want those dirty mill jobs anyway... we can retrain Americans to do clean jobs like customer service and things in the service industry". Sure... now all customer service over the phone goes to India.... and all of our service work is done by Illegal aliens here. Talk about a huge network... if you aren't mexican here in Los Angeles... it is almost impossible to get a job in construction... if there is an opening... they hurry and get one of their cousins up from Mexico to fill the slot.... WE ARE EXPERIENCING A FOREIGN INVASION ! We should invade Mexico under the guise that they have weapons of mass destruction ( they do.... out of control birth rate)... and start exploiting their natural resources... nice beaches... Which we as foreigners can't buy any land near... etc etc.

Reed Jensen

Now, perhaps the people who "lost" these "high-paying" jobs will get an education in math or engineering so we can get back to kicking Japan's, China's and Germany's arse in design and production.

Is the person that wrote this asleep? Anything we design.... is quickly copied over in China and sent back at pennies on the dollar... We are losing the ability to manufacture anything. The Chinese don't respect any trademark or copy write laws... they just counterfeit anything they want... including our technology and machine tools.