🚀 go-pugleaf

Your Special Friend wrote:
> 
> http://thekansan.com/stories/013004/vie_0130040039.shtml
> 
> Exporting U.S. jobs
> 
> Former textile worker, Jimmy, of North Carolina, laments, "We were
> middle class." Now he is among the 6,500 employees of the Pillowtex
> towel factory laid off in August 2003. Just two years ago, Jimmy and
> his wife bought a modest home, believing their combined wages would
> support them comfortably. Today, like many of their former co-workers,
> Jimmy and his wife both work part-time and have sold many of their
> goods to try and get by. Thousands of other former Pillowtex workers
> are facing foreclosures, eviction notices and car repos, making
> difficult choices about which utilities to turn off.
> 
> The Pillowtex closing was an event akin to a natural disaster. But it
> wasn't an act of nature that shut down the plant. Rather, the firm was
> overwhelmed by a flood of imports from China, resulting in the largest
> one-day layoff in the history of North Carolina. The Pillowtex closing
> dramatically portrays the devastation being wrought throughout
> America's manufacturing power by Communist China.
> 
> Manufacturing businesses, from electronics to fishing lures, are
> closing their doors in deference to Chinese imports. Three members of
> the president's cabinet on a cross-country jaunt to promote the Bush
> economic plan have encountered an earful from angry businesspeople. A
> spokesman of the Textile Manufacturers points out, "as textiles from
> China, India, Pakistan and Vietnam flood the American market, people
> are losing jobs faster than you can count. China dominates the
> market."
> 
> Ironically, China came in and purchased looms and other machinery from
> Pillowtex, crating and shipping them to China.
> 
> As a CEO of a closed furniture factory stated, "trying to stay in
> business, we asked our employees to be more productive, more
> efficient, even take pay cuts. The employees stepped up and done all
> we asked, but we could not compete with the imports. I feel like we
> let these folks down. It's unlike anything I've seen in my years in
> the industry. Plants have closed, people sent home; it's hard to say,
> three, four, five years what industry will look like in America. I
> think that at some point, this country has to think about what's best
> for us. We run a risk in any industry that we let leave this country."
> 
> The effects of job losses go well beyond the individual who lost the
> job. Each time a factory shuts down, it has a ripple effect on the
> economy and the wages of other workers in America. In other words, we
> accelerate our "race to the bottom."
> 
> The erosion of the U.S. industrial base has "enormous national
> security implications," reports National Defense Magazine (August
> 2003). The United States is so dependent on foreign countries for
> critical components and systems that we may have lost our control of
> our supply. We are now dependent on countries such as China, India,
> Russia, France and Germany for critical weapons technology. For
> America to be dependent on these nations is risky at best.
> 
> A very glaring local example is "Boeing to create jobs in South Korea"
> (Kansan, April 2002). Boeing has a contract to make 40 F-I5 fighter
> jets, the first-line fighter of the U.S. Air Force, and will build a
> plant in South Korea, employing 30,000 workers to manufacture them.
> Boeing also states that any future orders of F-1 5's will see
> manufacture in the South Korea plant.
> 
Zalek,

How would youpropose we remedy THIS situation?

> 
> As I listened to President Bush in his State of the Union speech say,
> "the economy is strong and growing stronger, and jobs are on the
> rise," I could not help but agree with Joe Leiberman, who the next day
> said, "This president is living in a dream world."
> 

I have felt he has lived in a dream world for years. He is not the
sharpest knife in the drawer. And they say that those with lower IQs
tend to think things are better than they really are. Ooooops! Did I say
that out loud?

-- 
#----------------------------------------------------------#
#                "Don't fear the penguin!"                 #
#----------------------------------------------------------#
# Registered Linux user: #309247     http://counter.li.org #
#----------------------------------------------------------#