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Brian Sullivan of the Tooling, Manufacturing and Technologies Association wrote a blistering opinion piece on free trade.
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The Costs of Free Trade -- As our industrial core shrinks, why don't we call a spade a spade?
By Brian Sullivan
ANALYSIS*
We should rename 'free trade' -- because it isn't free and it isn't
fair. Since it's trade that's regulated in favor of multinational
special interest groups, why don't we call it for what it is: How about
'rigged market trade' or 'turn your back on your fellow countrymen
trade' or 'throw American workers out on the street trade'. Why are we
so afraid to call a spade a spade? There are 36,000 fewer U.S.
factories than there were eight years ago. One in five manufacturing
jobs has been lost, nationally, in the last 10 years -- and counting.
What's wrong with calling it 'throw American workers out on the street
trade'?
If we don't stem the tide of multinationalism through trade law reform,
then of about 140 million U.S. jobs, between 42 million and 56 million
of them could be moved off-shore within 20 years: all 14 million
current jobs in manufacturing and 28 million jobs in the service
sector. We'll be left without any manufacturing at all, which is at the
core of our country's national security.
Members of our association, The Tooling, Manufacturing &
Technologies Association (TMTA) wonder if things will change in time.
They know that most of their woes emanate from disastrous trade laws
that have been written in Washington, DC. Our members wonder if elected
officials even care. It's clear that these elected officials trail
their constituents on the critical issues of trade reform. What it
boils down to is that government, at large, is unresponsive to what the
electorate wants. How long can this go on?
When the concept of 'free trade' was thought up, did the
corporate-controlled multinationalists anticipate that America would
cease to be a land of broadly shared prosperity? Did they know that the
decimation of manufacturing was going to happen and decided to continue
on this course anyway? The idea that our economy could regress to a
pre-New Deal model where the rich claim all the wealth the nation
creates while everyone else just gets by is?stunning. America wasn't
supposed to be the land of 'winner take all'. What's happened to the
concept of social morality?
It's been thrown out the window. The philosophy of corporate-controlled
multinationalism has sold the middle class into a world where God is
money and where people are viewed as a commodity to be used for profit.
Greed is now virtue. People like you and me have become pawns in a
money machine. The middle class is being destroyed and a new
billionaire class is rapidly emerging.
Corporate greed feeds on itself and U.S. manufacturing suffers.
Multinationalists who drive the global economy have distanced
themselves from the social contract, no longer relying on secure
employment and rising standards of living to bolster consumer spending.
Corporate greed has gotten so out of hand that there is no longer a
philosophical agreement, even amongst themselves, that it is in their
own self interest to promote a stable society by securing the safety
net. How do they justify themselves?
Here's a passage from Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail
by Jared Diamond, a social anthropologist. He describes an American
society in which "corporate elites cocoon themselves in gated
communities guarded by private security, fly in corporate aircraft,
depend on golden parachutes and private pensions, and send their
children to prohibitively expensive private schools. Gradually these
corporate elites lose their motivation to support the police force, the
municipal water supply, Social Security, and public schools. Any
society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if corporate elites
insulate themselves from the consequences of their own actions."
We have to ask ourselves the question, even in our capitalistic
society, 'How much is too much'? Well, in terms of what? Answer: In
terms of everything.
I suppose there are some who are reading this who are thinking that
this article is leaning a little to the left. Well, actually, it's not.
Increasingly, trade policy and the effects of multinationalism are not
partisan issues. The vast majority of Republicans now have serious
concerns about our current trade policies because they see these trade
policies as being harmful to the middle class and working families of
this country, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll. "By
a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe that free trade
is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democrat
views and suggests new trade deals could face high hurdles under the
next administration. The signs of broadening resistance to
globalization and a fraying of Republican orthodoxy on the economy were
also reported in this page-one news story in the WSJ.
We desperately need trade reform relief out of Washington, DC, and we
need it to come from both sides of the aisle. Trade laws that benefit
multinational companies have been enacted by representatives who we
hire, who we pay, who we expect to represent us, but they're destroying
small manufacturers.
The morally shameful 'I-don't-care-about-you-because-I've-got-mine'
mentality exhibited by Congress and this Administration is a national
disgrace. Our representatives and legislators, collectively, have been
responsible for trade policy that has resulted in a cave-in of the
manufacturing industry. Where are these people who were elected by us
to look out for our interests? Where are these people who were supposed
to be our legislative champions?
They're in Washington, alright. But a lot of the time they're not doing
what they're supposed to be doing on our behalf. Instead of being at
the Capitol, you know what they're doing? They're sitting in the donut
shop. But they're not eating donuts. They're feeding on complacency.
Our complacency.
We let the people who we've elected sit in the donut shop of big
business cronyism and collusion. We let them sit in the donut shop of
the sweet deal. We let them sit in the donut shop of personal
self-interest at our expense. And we continue and continue and continue
to re-elect them. And we never call them on it. And I mean call them on
it literally. A recent Gallup poll asked Americans if they've ever
contacted their elected representatives. 8 out of 10 said that they
never had. And yet, it's never been easier to contact Members of
Congress. All anyone has to do is click on www.house.gov/ or
www.senate.gov/ and type in a zip code and they're automatically
directed to their representatives. A window automatically pops up where
you can type a message to them. All in all it takes less than two
minutes, on average. And yet people don't do it. If people whose lives
are affected by manufacturing, or health care, or any other social
issues wrote their legislators and told them that they wanted trade
reform or health care reform and would be watching to see how they
voted, the results of that would be staggeringly effective.
At the end of the day, there's only one way that there's going to be
any relief for all of us in manufacturing and that's through
Washington, DC. Most of manufacturing's problems, your problems, my
problems, are as a result of bad trade laws. When the grassroots
electorate of this country becomes engaged in this fight, we'll change
bad 'free' trade laws into good 'fair' trade laws that will reflect the
interests of small manufacturers who've been absent from trade policy
deliberations far too long. By the way, that's what the Tooling,
Manufacturing & Technologies Association is all about. That's what
we do. We very aggressively advocate, politically, on behalf of small
manufacturers, in Washington, DC. The TMTA doesn't host lunches or
dinners. We're not a social or networking association. We're very
serious advocates for small manufacturers like you who need our
association now more than ever. We confront government officials who
have substantial authority, those who chair and sit on committees and
sub-committees that influence trade law. The TMTA identifies which
elected representatives favor improved trade policy, or not. And we let
our members know how they vote. We educate grassroots citizens and
local opinion leaders. And, you can find more about us by going to our
website (see link below) -- and joining us.
We need fair trade reform and we need it now. We need to force our
elected officials to re-do trade policies -- from the ground up. And
the first thing that should happen is that there should be a freeze on
all new trade agreements, especially by this current Administration,
until major pro-domestic producer and worker trade strategies are put
in place. It's awfully clear that we're not going to get any help from
this White House and that's a real shame.
Congress must create a National Trade Commission. Congress must pass
currency manipulation legislation. Congress must address the unfair
advantage caused by the rebate of value-added taxes (VAT) by passing a
border equalization tax. Congress has to enact countervailing duty
laws. Congress has to pass laws that standardize "Rules of Origin."
They have to pass laws that address infrastructure imbalances including
regulatory standards and enforcement standards.
And, you know, there are others, with a lot more wisdom and experience
than me saying the same thing. Listen to what Lee Iacocca has to say
about all this in his new book, Where Have all the Leaders Gone?.
Quote: "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's
happening? Where is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder.
We've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind. The most famous
business leaders aren't the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. And,
don't tell me it's all the fault of right wing Republicans or liberal
Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument and it's part of the
reason that we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions.
We're a people and we rise and fall together. I have news for the gang
in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your butts and do nothing
and remain silent while our country is being hijacked and our greatness
is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? Why
don't you guys in Congress show some spine for a change?" Unquote.
It sounds as though Mr. Iococca is screaming from the rooftop. His
emotionality stems from the apathy he sees amongst? us. As a result of
what's happened to manufacturing, we've become stuck in 'survival mode'
reflected in an unwillingness to change. Our new reality is that there
is now a 'creep' in the hearts and minds of most of us in manufacturing
manifested by a quiet acquiescence and a blindness to the issues that
are threatening our economic survival.
So, the desperate state of manufacturing can be fixed in this country
if we all decide to become involved and immersed in the problem... If
we all become educated about trade reform laws and policies that affect
us... If we decide to become active in letting our elected
representatives know what we want them to do on our behalf... And if we
let them know we're keeping an eye on them to see how they vote on
trade issues.
Because, as Mr. Iacocca said, we didn't elect Congress to sit on their
butts and do nothing and remain silent while our country is being
hijacked.
Right now, leading into this up-coming general election cycle, we have
the real opportunity to make change. Politicians are up for election or
re-election. They usually become sensitive to the wants and needs of
their constituents right before an election. Rather than accepting
lip-service, however, the TMTA has aligned itself with other
organizations like the Organization for Competitive Markets and the
Coalition for a Prosperous America, like-minded groups that are
actually holding politicians' feet to the fire relative to trade reform
issues. (In the last election cycle held two years ago, 15 politicians
who were manufacturing-unfriendly and electorally vulnerable were
targeted for defeat. And the 'kill rate' was 15 out of 15.) We intend
to follow that model in this election cycle. Politicians who have been
in the pockets of the corporate-controlled multinationals are on
notice. We are going to do what we can to defeat them for the sake of
manufacturing.
Since January 2007, when our association went national to answer the
need for small manufacturers to be represented honestly in Washington
DC, we have grown from representing 21,000 member employees to now
representing 50,500 member employees in 22 states. And counting. This
remarkable growth shows that small manufacturers want, need, and value
advocacy at the federal level. The stronger our association becomes,
the more clout we have in the halls of power in Washington DC. Why
don't you join us? We need your help and support.
Ultimately, we're optimistic about the future of manufacturing. I'm
reminded of the observation that the United States can always be
counted on to do the right thing?once all other possibilities have been
exhausted.
That's supposed to be a funny line but there's a lot of truth in it.
About the Author: Brian Sullivan is director of sales, marketing &
communications for the Tooling, Manufacturing & Technologies
Association, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA. Known as the
Michigan Tooling Association until January of this year when TMTA was
created as a new voice for manufacturing, the organization was founded
in 1933 as the Automotive Tool & Die Manufacturers Association.
Contact: 248-488-0300, x1307,
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or www.thetmta.com
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