Focus on jobs lost to foreign markets
I have to agree with Bob Mellin's Jan. 28 letter (``Editorial shouldn't be pulling punches,'' Page 6). Your publication should take a stance on job losses to foreign markets.
We can't compete with slave-labor nations such as Mexico or China. There needs to be an expose on our nation's lowering of living standards and loss of basic manufacturing plants. You don't have to be an economist to see what is happening to our ability to manufacture our own goods.
[Federal Reserve Chairman Alan] Greenspan made a comment last year that the foreign trade deficit was going to be a big problem in the future. Nobody seemed to hear his warning. The United States is becoming a raw material supplier and a finished goods buyer. The rest of the world has a population problem and people will work for food wages.
Fair trade is bunk! There is no equal playing field. This country is not growing or becoming stronger. Our business leadership stinks.
Corporations need to stop thinking about stockholder short-term value and think of long-term survival. We need a shift in business consciousness that says, ``Let's look to our workers as our customers.'' Wal-Mart's ``Buy America'' is a good example of a firm that supports U.S. manufacturers.
Do we truly need to do trade with countries that do not have Occupational Safety and Health Administration or Environmental Protection Agency counterparts or that use child labor? With those that harbor terrorists, build weapons of mass destruction or see us as the enemy? Do we need to do business with countries that allow drugs and drug cartels to grow within their borders?
Do we need politicians that sign North American Free Trade Agreement-type treaties that move jobs out of our country?
My answer is no! The only way to change another country's attitude toward us is to deny it from doing business with us.
Our future to survive as a nation is being exported. We need a strong protectionist attitude until the rest of the world plays fair or not at all. In the end this is not about business survival. It is about survival of our nation.
Walter Bobruk
Agency Fibers Ltd. LLC
Huntsville, Texas
Story pinpoints woes of mold-trade data
(Regarding ``U.S. mold-trade figures contain inconsistencies,'' April 8, Page 1):
There is a lot of hype coming out of the mold trade associations about unfair trade. It's important that we get good facts first, before putting forth conclusions. Unfortunately, there is too much emotion in the U.S. mold trade associations. Your piece did a nice job of illustrating the lack of reliable data.
I have been building and now buying molds in the United States for more than 20 years. I've been buying molds in Asia (Singapore, China, Taiwan and Malaysia) for the last seven years.
I now own a consulting business for plastics engineering and tooling. I build a good deal of tooling in China, which I qualify for injection molding production in both China and U.S. manufacturing operations.
Tariffs are not the answer to international competitiveness, never have been, never will be. But that's another subject.
Dan Girouard
Cedar Park, Texas
