"Yesterday, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history began. Detroit filed for bankruptcy over a year ago, claiming it had no way to pay off the estimated $18 billion in debt. Last month, some of Detroit’s creditors complained about the settlement agreement.
Recently, retirees in Detroit had to vote to approve a cut to their pensions in order to save a buck for the municipality. Also, the city no longer provides health insurance to retired city workers.
For decades now we have seen the true effects disastrous “free trade” agreements such as NAFTA and KORUS have had on our economy. The U.S. has seen a great many jobs lost and entire industries have been decimated. This cannot be true any more than for Detroit, Michigan’s motor-city.
Detroit was the fourth largest city in the country and the wealthiest city in North America, but is now nothing more than the poster-child for America’s deteriorating economy. Its streets are lined with vacant houses and rows upon rows of dilapidated structures: old apartments and long-abandoned factories and warehouses. In fact, about a third of Detroit has been abandoned, and the population that was once two million has plummeted to a mere 714,000. Whole neighborhoods have been abandoned. Poverty in the city has reached such a level that water is being turned off to thousands of residents who cannot pay their bills.
In 1994 Michigan had 288,700 people working in auto manufacturing. Now, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 116,000 people have auto jobs in Michigan. That is a loss of over 170,000 jobs in only 18 years. Even since 2004, automotive manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have dropped from 1.1 million to around 700,000 jobs.
All that NAFTA has done is benefit the 1% at the expense of everyone else. Companies will invest where they believe they can make the most profit, and even though American manufacturing is at its highest efficiency ever, there is no way for it to compare to the profits made south of the border where the cost per hour is often less than $4. This removes middle class jobs from hard working Americans and drives down our wages while increasing the influx of cheap goods from Mexico.
What does this mean? Record profits for CEOs and high unemployment and falling wages for the Average American.
In the year before NAFTA was signed, we maintained a small trade surplus with Mexico. By 2012 we had an approximately $62 billion deficit, and over one million jobs have been lost. By getting rid of NAFTA and putting in place agreements that are more favorable to our nation, the U.S. can increase employment, strengthen the middle class, increase workers’ wages, and strengthen the U.S. economy. Detroit may be the largest, but if our trade deficits continue, and the current administration continues to push for devastating “free trade” agreements, it will not be the last city to declare bankruptcy."
Detroit’s Bankruptcy Trial Starts While the City Crumbles | Economy In Crisis
^ Importing people who adhere to a stone-age violent religious cult into this boiling cauldron is a mark that some in government are downright insane.