Sinking the Middle Class

With the North American Free Trade Agreement, our country is by law irrevocably merging its financial and social fortunes with Canada and Mexico, the latter being irrefutably Third World. Unlike the citizens of Europe who have been able to express themselves at the ballot box, we have no say as to whether this should happen or not. Instead, a handful of negotiators, the U.S. Congress and the President are the only citizens allowed to vote on our collective destiny.

Questions are being raised as to whether the treaty is structured in such a way as to entice American companies to leave America, taking well-paying jobs with them. These questions are quickly dismissed by negotiators and the Bush Administration, which says there will be job retraining available to displaced American workers. At whose expense, pray tell?

The middle class had better pay attention to this so-called treaty because the middle class will pay first with its well-paying jobs, then again to support and retrain fellow citizens who have lost jobs because of this treaty. Finally, we will be slapped for a third time to pick up the bill for the environmental mess created by industry in Mexico and possibly to right the social ills of that Third World nation.

In essence, this bill could be what capsizes what is left of the middle class.

LAURELLA CROSS

Irvine