Edwards is a rank populist and is either a liar or has no idea what he’s talking about.

Edwards is a rank…liar…

Mercenary trial shysters like Edwards and labor goonion thugs have cost this country millions in jobs.

As Edie’s point makes clear, some workers did lose their jobs when factories relocated to Mexico. Ask someone who used to work at Levi’s or Wrangler, for example.

The analysis our gracious host is simply a single-variable understanding of a system with many variables–irredeemably flawed, sadly.

I do believe that making trade as free as possible, within the parameters of national security and so on, is a good thing. However, we cannot simply take a look at overall employment and GDP numbers and say that this statistic “proves” anything.

Rather, the argument for free markets is very simple; is it more just to deny consumers the greatest selection of goods possible, or is it more just to allow as many goods as possible into the marketplace without undue burdens of taxation?

If we view the dollar of the consumer as his own, we quickly find that there is a moral imperative for free trade in allowing him to retain and use as much of his property as possible.

From a personal perspective I lost the best job I ever had when the company closed our plant and opened another in Mexico. They paid those workers $.60 and hour, no retirement or health benefits and had no payroll taxes to deal with. Within sight of 3 years they had to close that plant in Mexico because they could not find enough workers. The Mexican citizens could at that wage work for 3-4 months and quit to live comfortably the rest of the year.

In a recent survey done by the local news media 85% of those who lost their jobs were now working for a decreased wage and fewer benefits.

From my point of view NAFTA has greatly impacted this area.

So, Just keep on buying those cheap goods and we will all just sit back and watch Coroprate America continue to rape the American citizen. If we do not create the demand for quality American made goods at a reasonable price then we will get more of the same.

I wish I still had those ads for a certain big box store when they were just starting up. (I know you all have been in one at least once) They said that 75% of all their merchandise will be American made. Years later and more than a few market shares later you are hard pressed to find 10% American made products in their stores.

Wake up our garment industry is nearly gone. Electronics is falling away. The auto industry is limping. Buy American should be our battle cry.

There is no obfuscation on my part here, but rather simply the point that aggregate statistics can never quantify the local impacts of a treaty. In the past dozen years of so, you have NAFTA, tax cuts, the war on terror, and more things impacting those aggregate employment statistics. Just because you can’t see something in aggregate statistics doesn’t mean it’s not there. It means that you’ve got about 5236 variables, and you’re just looking at one of ‘em.

What I’m saying here is not that the end point is wrong–that NAFTA may be a benefit–but rather that your evidence can never prove it.

And I would encourage you to file it with the gold standard comments, but only after you purchase some decent penny candy.

Further research needed for a complete picture:

1.) What was the average change in hours per week of all hourly workers in the time span?

2.) What was the average change in hourly wages after accounting for inflation?

(I have no idea, but these answers may just make your point even stronger.)

If Edwards is correct, show me the evidence.

I’ll take your comment about unemployment figures at face value (even though I think it’s irrelevant for the larger picture), so let’s look at it this way.

America’s population was 262,000,000 in 1994. It’s about 301,000,000 right now. That’s a difference of 39,000,000.

Since 1994 we’ve added 30,000,000+ jobs to the economy. When you work that out with age demographics (remember that someone born in 1994 would just be 13 today and not yet in the job market, and also remember that of the 262,000,000 in 1994 many have reached retirement age by now) it’s about even.

NAFTA hasn’t lost us a thing, and has actually made a lot of goods and services in America cheaper.

Edwards is a rank populist and is either a liar or has no idea what he’s talking about.