feelin a bit negative..

[slim rem 7]

just watched an old version of the titanics sinking.. i couldn t help but see the similarities to what may be happening here this country..the wealthy were first offerd the boats an complained about the discomfort of the life vest..didn t wanta be bothered.. the truth of the situation was held from 2nd an 3rd class until close to the end..none could really grasp what had really happened..
 much the same here im afraid.. nafta has been the iceburg..to allow the masses of an communist ,absoluten power to compete with our people with our unions and
 ease of life expectancy..we didn t have a chance one..i ll admit at first i thought ,,well they get a piece of the pie now.. i didn t have the forsight to see how they would be this countries doom.. just my opinion..i don t see any lifeboats ..i was schooled by depression born parents but this may be worse im thinking..
here we are wishing not to be inconvenienced by the troubles we see now.. not thinking we might be slipping into oblivion..surely it can t be that bad.. kinda what those on the unsinkable musta thought..what you gonna do when ss stops cause theres just nothin left .. when its back to the strongest only survive..
will those strongest survive with character an decency or greed..kinda wish i still drank this morning..but i promised ..slim

[dukkillr]

I'm fascinated by the negativity that continues to get directed at NAFTA.  Regardless, it IS NOT the iceberg that sunk this economy. 

[slim rem 7]

 please tell me your reasoning.. was it not nafta that opened the door to
head to head competition between chinas absolute controlled  masses and an our slightly spoiled
working class ,here this country..total suicide in my opinion.. they know it and i be lieve are biding thier time.. they have plenty time... we get a bit lower in the water all the time.. my brotherinlaw ..a truck driver just got cut to one day run a week..
 my wife a nurse got the word ..layoffs in the near future..
 when those two professions start dn.. watch out my friend..
 the lack of manufacturing and making profit,in this country,, is finally getting to all the working class.
  its my bet that if we totally stopped trade with china ,,[which we won t ]
china would consider it grnds for some type war..
 hate to think it, but a war would be about the only thing i can see that might be that lifeboat..it puts our people to work an stops importing china goods at the same time..
 i know ,,,many here got some idea that thier mass numbers make them invincible but not so without the way to export war as this country currently has an china at least for now doesn t have yet..this my opinion.. may god help us if im right.. slim..

[dukkillr]

Wow.  You just went from the crazy talk fire to the crazy talk frying pan.  I'm dizzy.

War with China, at this point in American history is crazy talk.  They have lots of people, a quickly expanding industrial economy, and nuclear weapons.  Also their government has a history of not particularly caring about loss of life...

But, back to your first point... Do you know what the first two letters of NAFTA stand for?  I'll give you a hint, it's a geographical area that China isn't in.

I've seen, over the years, these NAFTA bashing arguments take place in an environment completely void of facts... So I'll just send you to this website.  It's an easy read.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

Check and see if you can find a pattern.  If it looks like we have been increasingly importing from China, regardless of NAFTA (which took affect Jan 1, 1998) then you'd be right.

Then consider that China has "Most Favoured Nation" status, and has since before NAFTA.  Perhaps that's where your anger should really lie?

I don't really care about NAFTA one way or another.  I just can't understand how it became this giant boogeyman for the crazies of the world to blame all their problems on.  If the arguments were accompanied by data I might find them more compelling, but they never are.

[slim rem 7]

 you are foolin youself my friend..they have nuclear,but do you think they don t know that be the dumb play on thier part.. al they have to do is wait,until the cows dry ..finally they have as much to lose ,,which is good as us..the last ones that want nuclear is china ,let me tel you.. we arn t dealin with old time china ..this the fastest growing economy in the free enterprize world..so they retain absolute control while taking bounty at our expence.. you think its crazy.. where would you have been on the titanic.. your point of view tells me you would be sayin ,,well thank goodness shes unsinkable..deal the cards.. would somebody find out why the ships listing a bit.. mighty inconvenient for card playin..but you got your right to your opinion bro.. may you always have it..slim

[wgr]

nafta the gift from billy clinton. and yes nafta is taking us down fast weather is in north america are not they are killing us look at the us plants that went there. i know i worked for alcoa at one time right before they closed the plant i was at ant went to mexico.they closed two more that went to china thinks mister clinton

[beerbelly]

Yeah, thanks to NAFTA the good manufacturing jobs left the country. We now have what they call a service economy. There is no way such an economy can survive. You are watching it die right now.
                             Beerbelly

[slim rem 7]

  eating a bit o crow here.... since i lived thru instead of reading about it ,,i ll have to admit im wrong about the exact trade agreement titles names..
 nafta an the giving to china,, most favored status happened
in the close time frame ..so are tied togather in my memory..
 the time frame not withstanding .. what i said about trade with china still stands,, sadly but so depressingly true that its hard for me to believe we actually did it..
 we might have stood the huge salvo that came from allowing corp america to use cheap  mexican labor..but china with her masses just swallowed our workers wellbeing ,in huge gulps ..as a lion eating its prey..
 the only thing that could stop it is strong tariffs ,but that time may have passed now also..if we stop trade we totally tick china off.[its time too..]
 but not near as much as it would have before china labor bankrupted the working man here.. for that we can blame corp.. america.. so what greybeard is sayin just might be the real truth..
 corp.. america sold us out,,intentionally or not.. that makes the real power not corp america but chinas leaders since they totally control corp americas interest over there.... so is the real author of our decline corp america or chinas leaders who allowed them to come into china,,after some courting.... i think they,[china] knew what the results would be..slim..
ps duk killer grnd given for your correctness in trade agreement titles.you got that part o u post right..but war is part of life on this earth and would cut chinas lifesblood[income] in half while putting us back to work..