Dear Editor,

Eric Bolling of Fox News recently said that 342,000 manufacturing and mining jobs were lost under Obama, (mostly due to the increased costs of government regulations). That means many thousands more were lost in the communities that were partially supported by them. It’s very important to realize and always remember that when our steel mills closed down in the Ohio Valley, so to did a lot of small business that survived thanks to the patronage of those workers. Manufacturing industries such as steel mills produce great profit margins that allow their workers to earn a good wage. Not all business models are so lucky! Not all business models are able to pay their workers so well that they are able to take their good wages out into the communities they live in and actually make a big difference. The impact of the loss of these jobs is immeasurable.

Which brings me to my next job killing point. Free trade! My professors in college used to tell us our goods will be cheaper once they are made overseas (by slave labor undoubtedly). They loved to tell us about, and use the buzz words, “disposable income.” “Disposable income” was part of the feel good free trade fairy tale, that we would all have extra money in our pockets because the price of everything will be coming down once it was made overseas, so our dollars will be able to buy more. I remember asking them why then Nike shoes were so expensive, and I used that as an example to prove to them that just because big industries labor costs were going down, that it would have nothing to do with the end cost to Americans.

I knew this at 18 years old, and it was from growing up in a small family business. I guess my 45-year-old professor lived in a liberal bubble of nice thoughts for too long and could not see it. In reality, the price of once made American items stayed the same, and big industry kept our disposable income as they moved their factories overseas.

I also pointed out that a steel mill worker won’t have much disposable income in his pockets when the steel mills are gone. And that brings me to my next point. My enlightened liberal professors told me, with disdain in their eyes for steel mills and steel mill workers, that people will just have to transition into green jobs, and that America is currently transitioning into a service-based economy. They failed to recognize the value and abilities of our steel industry.

Well, fast forward to today. The service-based economy we now enjoy translates to the once well paid steel mill workers having jobs in Walmart. Walmart survives and thrives from the free trade agreements negotiated by the establishments of both parties. Because of these crooked trade deals, Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc., can outsource their goods from China, made by slaves, and sell them cheaper than the American mom and pop stores they compete with. The American producers they bought their goods from were able to earn good wages for themselves and their families. Opening our borders to free trade negotiated by crooked politicians in both parties allowed Walmart to destroy the mom and pops they competed against. In turn, the American job losses trickled up and down the stream. Now people in Walmart don’t earn the kind of money our steel mill workers once made.

The living wage is yet another liberal fairy tale. The fairy tale of free trade as we have known it has caused our country more damage than anything else I can think of in the last few decades. We need to defend our manufacturing industries. We need to encourage and help the workers of the Third World to unionize and bring up their wages and working conditions (thus manufacturing costs) in order to make ourselves more competitive. We need to realize we can’t buy steel from China to fight China.

We need to be vocal that we want Trump to do what he said he would. I worry about the establishment Republicans doing all they can to stop him because the big industries that finance their campaigns will be giving them orders to! The over-regulation of our industries helped to cripple Americas competitiveness. President Trump has started to change some of that already. The battle for new trade deals has really yet to begin. It’s going to be hard to change the narratives the establishment has been pushing for years. They simply say that the cost of tariffs will be passed onto the American consumer, and it scares people that all of our costs will rise. However, a president like Trump hopefully will say to these importers that you will eat the total cost of the tariff or lose the right to bring any of your goods into our country.

But big industry does not want global wages to rise! Big industry and the powers that be have bought and paid for establishment politicians in both parties to create what is the biggest money making scheme in the history of the world, free trade! This is one of the defining issues of our time, and most people never even pay it any mind.

Thank you,

Randy Lollini Jr.

Dillonvale