More generally, a major effect of expanding international trade is to make work a commodity, subject to the same economic factors as raw materials and manufactured goods. Competition among nations results in driving down the price of labor (i.e., wages and salaries), just as it does the price of shirts. This applies to all kinds of workers, ranging from hotel chamber maids to skilled machinists, to engineers, and to other professionals. Worker remuneration is being driven down toward subsistence levels.
Along with low pay, goes hazardous, uncomfortable, and tedious working conditions. We are seeing, in other counties, disasters reminiscent of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, which killed 146 girls and young women. Similar factory disasters, some with much higher death tolls, have occurred recently in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China [7][8][9].
This discussion of problems with transnational trading is by no means complete. Much damage is being done by the North American Free Trade Agreement Treaty (NAFTA) [10], and there is a threat of even more serious damage via the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty [11], now being pushed toward ratification in semi-secrecy.
References[1] Wikipedia, "Comparative advantage", Wikipedia
[2] Kimberly Amadeo, "U.S. China Trade Deficit: Causes, Effects and Solutions", About News, September 30, 2014
[3] Census Bureau, "Trade in Goods with China", U.S. Census Bureau, 11/2014
[4] Bonnie Kavoussi, "General Electric Avoids Taxes By Keeping $108 Billion Overseas", The Huffington Post, 3/11/2013,
[5] Anne Singer, "Press Release: General Electric's Ten Year Tax Rate Only Two Percent", Citizens for Tax Justice, February 27, 2012
[6] Mark Gongloff, "Apple, Google, Microsoft Avoid Taxes By Keeping Billions In Profits Offshore: Senate Report", The Huffington Post, 9/20/2012
[7] BBC, "Bangladesh factory collapse toll passes 1,000", BBC News, May 10, 2013
[8] Adil Jawad and Sebastian Abbot, "Pakistan Factory Fires Kill Nearly 300 In Karachi", Huffington Post, 2012/09/12
[9] Ben Blanchard, Reuters, "Fire kills 119 in China poultry factory", The Christian Science Monitor, June 3, 2013
[10] Ben Beachy, "NAFTA's 20-Year Legacy and the Fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership", Public Citizen, February 2014
[11] Public Citizen, "Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Job Loss, Lower Wages and Higher Drug Prices", Public Citizen, 11/14
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