ABC World News reported just this past week that 98% of all clothes in the United States are imports.
It was reported in the Los Angeles Times on June 30, 2011 that the White House is pushing for free trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama. At the same time they are concerned about the loss of American jobs. The concern is about “the 46 year old male, the family breadwinner, with a high school education who had worked more than a decade in a factory that is closing.”
This is astonishing. The Democratic Party, they are the party that claims to be concerned about America’s middle class and poor, is pushing for these treaties to be passed. The GOP opposes the treaties because of a requirement that training for those losing their jobs is included in the laws. They too seem to favor exporting more jobs.
How many jobs have we lost to free trade? The Economic Policy Institute estimates more than 500,000 job have been lost in the United States to Mexico. US Bureau of Statistics lists imports from Mexico have increased from $134 billion on 2002 to $229 billion in 2010. Exports in the same period increased from $97 billion to $163 billion.
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