[mfg-smartcam] Off Topic - Petition to level the playing field for American manufacturers

[Dave Hayden]

This is out-dated with respect to an Aug 31 deadline but it is an interesting read anyway.

David

----- Forwarded by Dave Hayden/elliott on 09/03/2003 09:13 AM -----


Jennifer

zoellick.doc
Description: Binary data

If you want to vote against American manufacturing, type "REMOVE" in the subject box & return. Subject:  USA Fair Trade    To:  all manufacturing people. Please take one minute to read this and save your company, your job, and our country. If we don't organize now, manufacturing will simply become extinct in the United States.  Since the enactment of China free trade and "Fast Track" legislation, what was a trickle of jobs lost abroad is today a torrent.  You think it's hard now?  China is, by a country mile, the worlds largest buyer of the latest technology and production capacity.   Then running it with .90 Cent an hour wages, no OSHA, no EPA, no Workman's Compensation, no Health Care, no Medicare, no out of control tort system, no Disabilities ACT or countless other government mandated added costs beyond your control.  In addition, since 1994, China has pegged their currency to the dollar giving Chinese goods another huge competitive boost in the USA.  China and our other trade partners are not the enemy, it's our trade policy that is at fault.   People speak of a "jobless recovery".  Duh!  - if I take my product and eliminate the American workers, sell my plant and equipment (or ship the equipment to China) my cost for finished goods drops by what 40%, 50%, 60%.  My company makes a big buck.  Wall Street is joyous, the stock shoots up..along with unemployment.  Gone are the manufacturing jobs; gone is the consumer purchasing power.  Gone is your business or your job. At the end of the day a few get rich and for the USA, we spiral downward.   Our manufacturing capacity is vaporizing before our eyes. Our machine tool industry is all but dead. Don't believe it?  The price of used machinery in the US is in "free fall".  A man whose shop was worth $5 million before China free trade will be lucky to fetch $1M today.  �        We are rapidly eliminating skilled, high paying manufacturing jobs and converting them to minimum wage dead ends.   America must have a sensible and fair trade policy.   If the government is going to saddle us with unending costs then, we need to employ some fair trade methodology to allow Americans to compete at home and abroad.    Democrat or Republican it makes no difference, there is plenty of blame on both sides on how we arrived here.  Our interest is not partisan, just American! We are all talking about it, but few of us have time to seriously address these issues while struggling to keep our own business alive.       A Simple Plan: Each month we will select a government leader to receive our message.   We are going to flood this individual with a demand that we will not settle for anything less than FAIR TRADE.    Here's how: I know it's a pain but we MUST SEND LETTERS.  The e-mails and fax numbers that we can get access to for these people won't work for volume required.  WE NEED BULK! If just once a month we use the power of an ordinary letter multiplied by five (or more) business associates or co-workers, and their five and so on, and if we all have the discipline to do this we can deliver our message in literally a ton of mail directly to our politicians door. Step 1.   Simply print, sign and mail the attached WORD.doc Or Go to our website http://www.usafairtrade.com/ and print the letter or if you prefer write your own. Step 2. VERY IMPORTANT: PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO A MINIMUM OF 5 BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, PARTNERS, CO-WORKERS,  OR ANY INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED IN SAVING OUR USA MANUFACTURING BASE.  OUR CONTACTS COME FROM METALWORKING, IF YOU HAVE MFG. CONTACTS IN OTHER AREAS - USE THEM! STEP 3.  MAKE SURE YOU MAIL BY AUGUST 31, 2003 THIS WON"T WORK AND NEITHER WILL YOU UNLESS YOU MAKE YOURSELF HEARD!  Our government leader for August 2003 is: Ambassador Robert B. Zoellick U.S. Trade Representative 600 17th St., NW Washington DC  20520 * Zoellick is a member of President Bush's cabinet and is his principal trade policy adviser. * Zoellick clearly does not understand the difference between FREE trade and FAIR trade!     My business, Industrial Machine Tool, Inc. www.industrialmachinetools.com is spending our time and our funds to move this along.  If you have ideas or wish to help please e-mail me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]