Great Trade Deal - For American Companies and Mexican Workers

There has to be a better name for this abomination than USMCA.

Everyone is for it, lotta smiles all round, bipartisanship.

Republicans gave here too. Instead of pharma being protected from generic competition in Mexico for 10 years they'll lose that monopoly, in Mexico. Of course we here will continue to pay the inflated outrageous prices. That must really sting. What a concession. Not.

Pelosi called it a big win for workers but didn't specify what country those workers are in.

Only 25% of parts for a car can be made in China or elsewhere outside of North America, wow! And, here's the kicker, by 2023 40% to 45% of a car has to be made by workers in North America making 16$ an hour which for a family of 4 is 138% of poverty.

Currently the per capita median wage in American is about $30K 0K. I'd think that a hard loud monotonous job like making a car ought to pay about the median per capita GDP of $60K, or more. The difference between average and median income is the difference between $30K and $100K. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_capita_personal_income_in_the_United_S... That's a huge difference, it's the difference between living off of stock in Toyota and working for Toyota.

Trumka signed off on it too. My wife is SEIU, and I support unions, but I know that unions no longer have the power to support the American worker, they are struggling to retain the most wages and benefits for their workers as they can.

Neither party, nor unions, has been able to follow the negotiations on this deal prior to it being struck.

I don't understand that "neoliberal" term I hear tossed around all the time, I do know we're screwed. Frankly I'd think the woke left cares a lot more about workers in Mexico than it does workers in Detroit. (I think what car factories are left all moved South to avoid unions anyway, does anyone live in Detroit? or Flint?)

Don't get me wrong. After I buy a car I look at the sticker on the door, not before, because I don't want to know. In October I bought a Tacoma, made in Baja. Three years ago I bought a Dodge diesel, made in Saltillo. Good workmanship on both. I get the best quality machines I can, and use the depreciation on my taxes. I speak Spanish all day long at work with citizens of somewhere else. I like Mexico just fine, and wish it's workers all the luck, but at some point we need to consider our own workers and that median income that is just above poverty.

Our upper midwest is rife with hollowed out cities that still have people but no more good jobs. The south took what jobs were left and paid them non union poverty wages and even many of those jobs are underbid by H2Bs that simply stay. Meat packing, steel, auto parts.

I see absolutely nothing in this deal that is a benefit to American workers except that there is a deal, and any trade that had been held up due to the break down of NAFTA will be resumed. A big old stinking pile of nothing.

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Cheap Chinese Crap. Next time I will buy a Honda made in Ohio.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

boriscleto's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness The Fit was made in Japan until the 2013 model year. They skipped 2014 in the US and in 2015 started building them in Mexico...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

@boriscleto
all stated "Made in Ohio". I forget what city.

We had a Fit but the battery kept running down. The dealer said we can't run it only one day a week. After the third time it was hauled in and he charged it, we tried starting the car three days later. Dead battery. Traded it in (this Spring) for a Chevrolet Sonic (made in Canada?) and couldn't be happier. Car starts right away after sitting outside for months, the turbo four is just as peppy as my former Impala V-6, the dashboard and accessories are great, and we get 26 MPG tooling around town to the grocery store. AND my back doesn't hurt after sitting in it like the Fit. Hard to get in and out, but very comfortable once inside. Manual temperature controls. Set them and forget them. The Buick is "automatic". Have to shut off the A/C every time in Winter when starting, even below 32 degrees. Have to keep overriding the fan as it drops down and speeds up by itself and switches from hot to cold and back.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

boriscleto's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness @The Voice In the Wilderness The battery is starting to run down, but it's cold now and I only drive a couple times a week. I've had the car for almost 5 years. My only service issue has been the tire sensors. No muffler/resonator pipe issues like I had with the 1998 Civic.

When I was transporting my grandmother I always had either a wheelchair, a walker, or both. So the folding rear seats were invaluable.

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

@boriscleto
I think the Fit's battery is too small. Much bigger battery in the Sonic. Accord battery is bigger too.

EDIT: Fit did always get above 30MPG.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

in fighting for medical care, retirement, maternity, education benefits for all. Wages, safety, training and a seat on the board of the company they work for should be their main concern. Medical and pension benefits are just more sticks to beat the unions with in economic downturns and sow fear. They can't be Reagan democrats any more and expect to survive.

That said, everything you say is true and has been, in places, for 25 years, New England was among the first to see it. Instead of aid, we got a lecture on the way of the world, how it was more efficient to send factories south, international trade was the way, and we should just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We just couldn't compete, so it was our problem. So here we are, divided, one region, one town, one group fighting each other for scraps. Once divided, conquered.

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boriscleto's picture

Like Milk+ from A Clockwork Orange...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

thanatokephaloides's picture

@boriscleto

Like Milk+ from A Clockwork Orange...

Oh, you mean Brawndo (It has electrolytes!)....

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

was made in Canada. The two old Insights (gen one) were Japan built. Concept cars. Still get close to 70 mpg. US companies make more money if jobs are outsourced. MAGA my butt.

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Azazello's picture

Neoliberalism – A political ideology based on “free market” economics.
Neoliberals support deregulation, privatization, tax cuts and austerity. They believe that markets will regulate themselves and that government and democracy are impediments. Neoliberal politicians and propagandists can be recognized by the use of such phrases as: “the role of government”, “big government”, “small government”, “burdensome regulation”, “free trade”, “public-private partnership” and “market-based solutions” among others.

History -
Based on the theories of crackpot “Chicago school” economists Friedrich Hayek (The Road to Serfdom, 1944) and Milton Friedman (Capitalism and Freedom, 1962), neoliberalism was first tried out on a large scale in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship. The election, in 1980, of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US brought neoliberal policies to both of these countries. With the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 neoliberalism became the governing ideology of both major political parties in the United States. Neoliberalism has led to the same results wherever it has been tried: grotesque income and wealth inequality, the degradation of public services and infrastructure and a lower standard of living for the majority of citizens.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Azazello

You really ought to post this Comment as a short Essay, Azazello.

Periodically.

I've never seen the term defined or discussed better.

Biggrin

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Azazello's picture

@thanatokephaloides
If you knew me in person you'd have a copy.
I wrote that as an easy explanation I could print out and give to people, homemade propaganda.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Azazello

I wrote that as an easy explanation I could print out and give to people, homemade propaganda.

If a male Canada goose were to pronounce upon neoliberalism as you did, he would be a very proper gander indeed!!

Biggrin

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

lotlizard's picture

@Azazello  
I’d prefer it be artisanal, organic, and homegrown like yours.

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actually because modern corporate finance is dependent on international trade, like the spiders that have evolved to living in homes that cannot survive if you put them out rather than stomp them. And because the American people want to buy stuff priced after paying workers $1 an hour but get paid $50 an hour, been that way since 1896. And don't get me started on how suffering from employers using immigrant labor to depress wages is nothing but racism. I might just hit you with my wallet, but don't worry, you probably won't even feel it.

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On to Biden since 1973

thanatokephaloides's picture

There has to be a better name for this abomination than USMCA.

.

There is. BOHICA. (Bend Over Here It Comes Again)

I see absolutely nothing in this deal that is a benefit to American workers except that there is a deal, and any trade that had been held up due to the break down of NAFTA will be resumed. A big old stinking pile of

..... that which regularly comes in big stinking piles. In other words, NAFTA -- or the human bodily product NAFTA is most accurately compared to.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides