The disaster of NAFTA

Economy in Crisis

The North American Free Trade Agreement has been nothing but a disaster for the U.S. Just by taking a look at the auto industry, we see how thousands, if not millions, of auto jobs have been shipped down south. Here in the U.S., the lowest paid autoworkers make $38 an hour with benefits. That is roughly four more times than the average auto worker in Mexico. It is no wonder that Mexico is the most attractive place in North America to build auto factories.

In addition, within the past two years, a whopping 8 automakers have opened plants and expansions in Mexico. Those are jobs that could’ve supported thousands of families here in the U.S. We were told time after time that NAFTA was going to be amazing for America.

In 1993, former president Bill Clinton, a strong supporter of NAFTA told us: “I believe that NAFTA will create 200,000 American jobs in the first 2 years of its effect. I believe that NAFTA will create 1 million jobs in the first 5 years of it’s impact.”

It wasn’t just president Clinton who made those claims. The very conservative Heritage Foundation told us that “virtually all economists agree that NAFTA will produce a net increase of U.S. jobs over the next decade.”

Not to mention that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in 1993 that “American firms will not move to Mexico just for lower wages.”

NAFTA was supported by every major corporation in America and Wall Street.

Looking at 20 years later, we see that all of these predictions were dead wrong. The Economic Policy Institute estimates a loss of 682,900 jobs to Mexico. That is the complete opposite of Bill Clinton’s prediction of the creation of 1 million jobs.