Over the last several decades, the United States has declined significantly when it comes to manufacturing power and trade leverage. Indeed, since the mid-1990s and the passage of NAFTA or the North American free trade agreement, millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the United States to outsourcing, automation and due to globalist economic policies. Many of these jobs, especially in sectors like the automotive and textile industries, have been greatly diminished. What was once a source of reliable middle class and stable employment is truly not this way any longer.
In places like the rust belt, entire towns have been destabilized; places like upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other states have truly been decimated by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Entire towns have been impoverished. This loss has not been isolated to just the “rust belt”; in the coastal Mid-Atlantic state of New Jersey, there were several auto plants that closed in the early 2000s. Glass and bottling industries were also vibrant in the southern half of the state, and nearly all of these jobs have been lost since the early 2000s. In southern counties like Cumberland, the population has actually declined. This is truly alarming as New Jersey is bursting at the seams with growth.
Once NAFTA was passed, many tariffs were eliminated. Many American companies have been incentivized to head overseas for production due to cheap labor. The nation of China has become dominant, and the country has been a real powerhouse. While the country has been dominating America in terms of trades and the majority of products found on shelves in American stores are made in China, the country is also buying up land. One billionaire named Chen Tianqiao, a Chinese national and member of the CCP has become the second largest private landowner in the U.S. and made a purchase of over 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015.
