Peter Gallagher

I didn’t just start crit­i­ciz­ing unfair trade deals like NAFTA because I started run­ning for office — I’m doing it because I’ve seen what hap­pens to a com­mu­nity when the fac­tory closes down and the jobs move over­seas. (Barack Obama)

Of course it’s a com­plete myth that work­ers get better-paid, higher-skilled, more secure jobs as a result of open­ing to trade. Just look at the mis­er­able result of the Chi­nese exper­i­ment since the 1980s. Will they ever catch up with Cuba?

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Barack Obama says he will reward busi­nesses that hold on to the ‘good’ jobs—that is, the jobs that the US worker had yesterday—a pol­icy that can only make the United States poorer. He’s promis­ing to give tax breaks to so-called Patriot Employ­ers that turn their firms into indus­trial muse­ums to keep the US work­ers at the same old jobs. Tele­phone repair­men, spot welders, ticket writ­ers, sad­dlers, tabulators …

If you could take any of this seri­ously it’s a pro­gram to cre­ate a North Korea north of the Rio Grande.