Corporate Profits
The greatest deficiency of the NAFTA Treaty, is that is there is no protection for labor or the environment. Consequently, we and the citizens of Mexico are paying a great price.
Free trade, is anything but free, because America has suffered 30 years of consecutive trade deficits. We should insist that our country follow the same trade practices as our principle trading partners, that is mutual, reciprocal trade as the foundation of any trade partnership. The $5 trillion in trade debt we’ve run up in the past six years is unsustainable. That's money that's not being invested in this economy, in our youth, and in our future.
We don't have free trade with China. Last year we had a $202 billion trade deficit with China. Trade treaties ought to require other countries to make their minimum wage half the median wage, so that as those countries prosper because of trade, that prosperity goes to a larger number of people. This is the way to build a up middle classes abroad.
Business people and economists say those lower prices are important for our consumers, but our inflation rate in this country is approaching five percent. Those Nike shoes that cost $110 in this country, but are produced overseas, have a very high mark up, because the average worker overseas is being paid a slave wage.
Corporate America was thriving with corporate tax rates above 50 percent and suddenly there is the great myth that those tax rates are much too high at 35 percent. Corporate executives claim that if we raise corporate taxes, they’ll just pass it on to the consumer. Furthermore, corporate executives claim that if they raise wages, it will shut down the business.
The fact is that the economy continues to grow and we've had a lot of growth in the economy, but median wages are stuck in the mud. Eighty percent of our workforce are blue collar workers, who work for an hourly wage. Adjusted for inflation their wages have actually been going downhill.
Free trade, is anything but free, because America has suffered 30 years of consecutive trade deficits. We should insist that our country follow the same trade practices as our principle trading partners, that is mutual, reciprocal trade as the foundation of any trade partnership. The $5 trillion in trade debt we’ve run up in the past six years is unsustainable. That's money that's not being invested in this economy, in our youth, and in our future.
We don't have free trade with China. Last year we had a $202 billion trade deficit with China. Trade treaties ought to require other countries to make their minimum wage half the median wage, so that as those countries prosper because of trade, that prosperity goes to a larger number of people. This is the way to build a up middle classes abroad.
Business people and economists say those lower prices are important for our consumers, but our inflation rate in this country is approaching five percent. Those Nike shoes that cost $110 in this country, but are produced overseas, have a very high mark up, because the average worker overseas is being paid a slave wage.
Corporate America was thriving with corporate tax rates above 50 percent and suddenly there is the great myth that those tax rates are much too high at 35 percent. Corporate executives claim that if we raise corporate taxes, they’ll just pass it on to the consumer. Furthermore, corporate executives claim that if they raise wages, it will shut down the business.
The fact is that the economy continues to grow and we've had a lot of growth in the economy, but median wages are stuck in the mud. Eighty percent of our workforce are blue collar workers, who work for an hourly wage. Adjusted for inflation their wages have actually been going downhill.
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