CAFTA

I was undecided about CAFTA until today's State of Things (my first call in!). Mike Munger, chair of the political science department at Duke University (an economist), claims that textile workers who currently make $40,000 will have to take lower salaries ($28,000 in his example) in the retail sector in order to save consumers money on a pair of jeans. My call-in question was whether anyone had done any studies to determine the cost to the COMMUNITY for the loss of the mill. In other words, what happens to the cost of services when those workers have less disposable income (reduced sales tax) and when migration away from the community reduces overall property tax revenues. Dr. Munger's response was that those types of studies need to be conducted but only AFTER CAFTA is ratified. I didn't get to hear the entire discussion so I'm not going to make any assumptions about the validity of Munger's argument. But I was finally able to decide that I don't support CAFTA and have written to David Price to say so. As much as I believe that American's should be helping Central and South America, Africa, and all the other third world countries, I cannot accept that we have to do so at the expense of our own people. I'm looking for references on enlightened foreign policy!