
Originally Posted by
Melonie
^^^ not to be overtly political on election day, but the NAFTA treaty and 'normalization' of US trade relations with China, which are arguably the root causes of today's stagnant hourly pay rates for US workers, loss of US jobs, outsourcing, relocation of US manufacturing operations overseas etc., were clearly the initiative of Bill Clinton and were set in motion long before GWB came into office. As a memory refresher, you might want to read this 6 year old news story ...
(snip)"The issue has split both parties over the past year. Democrats, led by the president [Bill Clinton - sic], strained their ties with key allies in the labor movement when they supported the measure; conservative Republicans broke with the party's allies in the business community to oppose the bill.
Unions warn that the pact could cost hundreds of thousands of American workers their jobs as Chinese goods flood the U.S. market and companies move their factories to China to take advantage of lower wages."(snip)
It's unfortunate (for all Americans except politicians, anyhow) that it often takes several years between the time that a change in gov't economic policy is made and the time when the effects, repurcussions and unintended consequences of that new policy become obvious. Most Americans don't ever 'connect the dots', and merely blame or praise whatever politicians are in office at the moment if things turn bad or improve - even though in the vast majority of cases the bad or good results actually stem from changes which were set in motion long before the current crop of politicians were voted into office.
~
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