The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is finely coming under fire
by Congress. This was reported today in the
Washington Post.
Now many people may not be aware what CAFTA is, or what the ramifications
would be if it comes into being, so I would like to give you my opinion on the
matter.
One thing we have noticed in the last couple of decades is a steady decline
in the number of manufacturing jobs in the United States. Drive through any
Midwest suburb and you will see a landscape riddled with boarded up factories
and crumbling down industries. No longer do we have the security of a factory
job that our fathers retired from.
This is also leading to the downfall of organized labor. As matter of fact it
is fading so fast that it is terrifying. The labor of this country does not have
a solid voice behind it any longer. That should scare any American worker.
People ask why the country has gotten so bad. Why do we see such things as an
increase in school shootings, increase in drug and alcohol abuse, or an increase
in poverty? Well it is simple. The day of the 40 hour work week is over. No
longer to men and women have time to be parents. Instead children are left along
longer to entertain themselves. For a middle class family to survive, both
parents must work 40+ hours a week. This not only hurts the children but the
marriage. Adults become engrossed in their careers and lose focus of the
important things such as family.
Now the argument is made that the careers support the families, and this is
very true. We all need money to pay our bills and put food on the table. I will
not argue that one bit. The problem is, it is taking more than double the effort
to provide for your family than it did as little as 30 years ago. When people
have to focus on work more in order to survive, then time is taken away from
other focal points such as family.
CAFTA will in fact add to this epidemic that is sweeping America. This time
the greatest victim would be the South. Passing CAFTA will allow for Central
American countries to start producing sugar and cotton. They will do so with
their poverty level wages and sell it back to the United States at a cheaper
cost. This will put a great harm on the farmers of the south. We will see a
definite increase in poverty in these areas, and they will start to echo the
appearance of the once manufacturing Midwest.
Further harm will also be brought upon the Midwest as more factory jobs will
get shipped out of the country. We will not be losing them to Mexico or Asia,
like we did under NAFTA. Now a whole new market will be open to the already rich
and powerful corporations. Why pay someone 15 dollars an hour to make medicine
in the United States when we can pay them 15 dollars a week to make it in
Central America? Further more the profits these American corporations see will
not be evident in the United States. They are already surrounded by tax breaks
and ways to funnel the money. It will in fact do nothing but destroy are already
heavily burdened economy.
Thankfully Congress has already opened their eyes to this. They are starting
to get enough support to destroy CAFTA. This is something we need. President
Bush said that our times have changed and people need re-educated to other
sectors of work, such as technology. Well this is also an industry we have seen
an overwhelming rate of exodus on, and leaves one to wonder what other fields
there will be left to enter.