The old cry that communism equally degrades everyone to little above serfdom could conceivably be apropos to the current economic strategy of corporations in search of minimal labor costs abroad. Conservatives and Clinton Democrats as well argue that it is logical to continue relentlessly free trade since they claim it creates jobs here, too. What they don’t tell you is what kind of jobs are created here. Free trade generates flea markets, dollar store, auto foreign parts outlets, Wal-Marts and other discount stores and naturally they need retail, maintenance, construction, longshoreman, and trucker employment. At the same time in the nation, textile, shopping malls, supermarkets, domestic autos,  electronic, steel, other metals industries and retail outlets suffer.

Americans must eventually make an important decision as to whether to continue being consumers most responsible for impeding Asian, African, Middle East, and Latin American nations to join the advanced industrial nations in realizing an enriched living style above their current condition, regardless of the phenomenal job creation but kept at harsh, low level rates. Even here, the Bush position on the illegal 12 million or so immigrants is designed to insure depressed wages spreading across the country. The U.S. citizen is unwittingly unraveling the struggles of the past to forge a comfortable, widespread middle class with a sustainable future.

Aside from the many pockets of small town and major cities victimized by outsourcing, the majority is still doing well and capitalizing on environmental violations and labor of the near slave wages of these developing nations — but at what moral price? Or does the current majority of the unaffected accept it as an amoral issue?

It is unconscionable that a nation that fought a horrendous Civil War to end slavery should once more revise this blight on our history.

Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: February 22, 2004.