Here is some more reading on this. NAFTA has been in the works for years, way before Bush hit office. It is just that the trucking industry catches first wind of this cause it us that it will affect more then anyone else on a income level.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15497

They should have been speaking up as it was affecting the other 3 million people. Instead of waiting on it to hit them!!

anybody want to buy a piece of wood?

Well some of us do, BUT no one listens. Good example of this is split speed limits and roadside inspections. Split speed limits are unsafe no matter how you try to justify it they are. All split speed limits are is revenue making for the state. I can;t count how many issues are out there about the trucking industry that affects EACH AND EVERYONE of us. Somehow, someway all of us depends on trucks. If you like it or not.

There is the reason you do not hear much about this stuff but if you want to always stay informed check out OOIDA website, always a wealth of info on there.

Man yall have about the only Union left with any strength to it in the country. Use it some of us will join and fight this ****.

Im afraid if you dont we will all come up losers!!!

G-nite Bearbait!!!

case in point
http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2007/Oct07/101007_Il_Split_speed_bill.htm

Here is the success model for you own corporation....
Get seed money to start your business thru tax breaks
from communities eager to have new businesses in their
neighborhood...If earnings are not happening fast enough
then declare your headquarters off shore so you can avoid
american taxes...when profits allow move your business off shore
to take advantage of low wages .....
When an american refuses to pay their taxes we declare them
a criminal and put them in jail...when corporations refuse to
pay their taxes thru loopholes...and take their business to other
countries to avoid paying wages here we declare them intelligent
CEO's ....we fight wars for these industries but they have no allegiance
to us whatsoever....thanks for your blood, sweat & tears america....

there is now a rumor online that IBM...a great american business
success story is now quietly planning a major move off shore that will
result in thousands (many thousands) of americans losing their jobs..

many will say the housing mess is because people didnt read the contracts
or wanted a house they couldnt afford...their own fault....give me a break...
the mortgage industry became predatory....and those that bought into it
were victims of a massive shellgame...

Free trade.

I buy finished goods from overseas cheaper than I can buy raw materials here. I sell these products in the US. If I do not purchase at the low prices I can find overseas I can not sell, because my sales price is too high. So forget it, I'm buying overseas or out of the market.

I prefer to manufacture locally, and to some extent I do, where I can do so economically. Freight costs come into factor when making the distinction between what to manufacture locally vs what to purchase overseas.

Since we design all our own products, our purchasing overseas means that some of our technology goes overseas with the purchase process. I really don't like that, but we protect ourselves in some measure by reserving certain processes to be performed here.

As long as there are no tariffs to balance the playing field, my dollars will continue to go overseas. I haven't got a lot of choice.

Even if you are my next door neighbor, I cannot buy from you if your price is too high.

Tariffs will give local companies some edge in sales, allowing them to produce products which they could not do profitably in the past.

I remain a critic of the free trade arrangements which are promoted in the interest of globalization.

There is an exception, in my way of thinking. For countries which remain in an underprivileged status, such as economically depressed regions. Some of these may be small enough to not largely affect our trade balance or manufacturing capacity. These countries may need some special benefits to enable them to have some access to our markets so that they might have special incentive to remain in the democratic sphere of governments. I do not think it is reasonable, for example to let a country such as Ecuador, go communist just because we denied them free trade status.

It might be a small thing with large benefits to help your neighbor in some cases.

Buying cheaper products from overseas is not the way to go. China has the cheapest labor force by far but that's because they don't follow health and safety standards, environmental standards, and union rules, and human rights standards. China is a corporation profit paradise only the corporation is the government. Uprisings in the rurals areas of China are put down that nearly noone out side of China hears about the blood shed.
Air polution there has cut the life expectency of the average citizen. The smog also gets jet streamed to the the west coast of the US.

Free trade work best if the money exchanged is balance. Meaning that what ever we buy from them, they inturn buy from us. But if they placed an embargo on US goods and we buy from them we lose money and dollar value goes down (inflation). And that what we have now we import more than we export. Why buy foreign products if it means that the money go to west bubble f*ck and does find it's way back here.

correction "goes to west bubble f*ck and does NOT find it's way back here."

Fitness, I'm glad to see that you left your sheltered life with your mommy and daddy taking care of all your needs in life, BUT this has been going on since the seventies. Good luck in life.......