July 27, 2007
						Claude Simon
						Veratex, Inc.
						1101 Mount Vernon Road
						Soperton, GA  30457

RE: Editorial: The Case For Trade  

As a small textile manufacturer, if I were to petition the government for an end to unemployment insurance, liability insurance, FICA, minimum wage requirements, OSHA, the EPA, child labor laws, overtime laws and union laws, not only would I be one nasty human being, but I would also be a walking joke.   Yet by and large, imported products are manufactured by foreign companies who are not subject to one or more of these legal requirements that make this nation civilized.   Why is that okay?   

Globalization is fueled by large corporations who have traded-in the difficulties imposed by a civilized country's government for the ease and low cost of foreign manufacturing.  It is enabled by a "buy-cheap" mentality to which I am no exception.  Politicians don't act because of the combined effect of multi-national corporate lobbies, short sited buy cheap constituents and a genuine fear of widespread inflation or worse yet, military conflict.

The skilled people who ran the machines that made the goods that made this country strong and great have been layed off in unprecedented numbers.  We owe them more than a hand out and "retraining".  They just want to keep working.

Claude Simon