Free Trade Laws hurting our economy

For a number of years now most corporations in our nation have not been doing nearly as well as they use to. Over the years these corporations have provided a living for parents, grandparents and provided good jobs for its employees. Let me share with you some thoughts on one thing that has hurt our corporations.

Free Trade has hurt our economy and in many cases we have elected politicians with no business experience who have opened up our country to foreign raiders through the Free Trade laws that do not tax imports. When Americans purchase items made in China rather than items made by American workers we hurt our corporations.

When foreign companies take a large share of a market our economy suffers. One good example is the auto industry which has faced hard times the past few years. GM is no longer the world’s leader because it is difficult to compete with foreign made cars that can be sold here for a much lower price. Many Americans have been loyal to U.S. made cars and trucks because they have driven them for years and will pay more in order to drive American made vehicles.

There are two reasons that come to mind that causes foreign made autos to be made for much less than American made vehicles. One is that foreign governments subsidize their auto makers by providing steel at a low price from government owned factories. The other is the auto makers pay their workers a very small salary compared to union workers in America. Our U.S. auto unions are paid outrageous wages and benefits. One autoworker union negotiated a contract with an auto manufacturer which dictated that if they closed a plant and laid off workers, those workers would be paid $100,000 per year for four years. The union leaders need to get in the real world and do everything they can to help keep American made vehicles on the road.

It has been told that a group of American businessmen went to the Chinese government and wanted to buy into their steel manufacturing companies and that they were told no way. Yet in America our steel industry is 53% foreign owned. We no longer have the capacity to produce the amount of steel this country needs as we once did in the past.

GM does manufacture and sell cars in China but the Chinese government requires them to buy all their materials in China. They don’t allow GM to bring anything from the U.S.

Congress needs to pass laws that will help restore the ability of our corporations to compete with international companies. Think about passing a law that says, “All cars sold in the U.S. have to be manufactured with steel made in the U.S.” This would revitalize American industry and should allow the mills in PA and Ohio to open up again. Millions of workers would be employed and billions would pour into the U.S. economy. This would be the greatest stimulus plan we could create and we would again become the world’s largest steel producer.

We have a business problem in this nation and it will take businessmen to solve it. We elected a President because he was a good speaker but he has never worked in business, never had a real job, never managed or supervised people, never run a department, never created a balanced budget and never wrote a business plan. He nor our federal elected officials seem to have any idea how to solve our nation’s business problem that is crushing our economy.

We need to put appropriate taxes on imports, find ways that will help our corporations compete and help small businesses so they can expand and employ more people. These things are the real answer to restoring health to the American economy along with electing real business men and women to our Congress and Senate.