NEXTopia Welcome to NEXTopia, a Web diary in which NEXT writers — and readers — share their evolving thoughts on a variety of issues. The opinions you read below are those of the individual writers, not necessarily those representing The Seattle Times. Respond to NEXTopia Currently, NEXTopia cannot automatically post readers' comments on the blog. However, writers and editors will regularly post your name and comments unless you note otherwise.

Meet NEXT Our freelance team and advisory board members who contribute to this blog. Christina Asavareungchai E-mail | Bio Sharon Altaras E-mail | Bio Drew Avery E-mail | Bio Althea Cawley-Murphree E-mail | Bio Camille Coldeen E-mail | Bio Chris Collins E-mail | Bio Dana Dibble E-mail | Bio Karan Gill E-mail | Bio Randy Henderson E-mail | Bio Gavin Hesse E-mail | Bio John Hieger E-mail | Bio Hana Kawai E-mail | Bio Anne Kim E-mail | Bio Kailani Koenig-Muenster E-mail | Bio Brent Ludeman E-mail | Bio Nate Robinson E-mail | Bio April Seipp E-mail | Bio W. John Schroder E-mail | Bio Daniel Thies E-mail | Bio Advisory board Colleen Pohlig E-mail | Bio Robert Hernandez E-mail | Bio Tracy Cutchlow E-mail | Bio Eric Devericks E-mail | Bio James Blethen E-mail | Bio Boo Davis E-mail | Bio Carlin Pressnall E-mail | Bio

Re: It's global, stupid

Chris is right that it is a positive thing that we are helping families in developing countries find work. I will even go one step further to say I find it regrettable that the Dems are using the fear of unemployment in much the same way the Bush campaign is exploiting the fear of terrorism to gain votes. Unfortunately, studies have shown that voters react to issues and candidates more on emotional issues than on logic or facts. So the mud slinging and the emotional manipulation is underway. Truthfully, the economy started to slide during Clinton's tenure. But Bush, rather than doing what was necessary to fix the problem, went ahead anyway with tax cuts that mostly favored the wealthy and that were originally promised on a vision of huge budget surpluses. Economic studies attribute about 2% of our current economic recovery to the tax cuts, and note that even that small boost is a short-term one. In the meantime, we have record deficits and national debt, and continued unemployment. But see, that doesn't come over as well as Bush is selling out America. Further, we do in fact need to do a better job on domestic growth and job creation rather than allowing and often encouraging corporations to ship jobs and factories overseas where the labor is cheap and they can poison those workers' air, soil and water more freely. We need more balanced trade, a reformation of our current habit of subsidizing farmers and manufacturers to undercut fair competition from developing countries, and intensive investment in local research and job creation. We will be better able to help the poor and starving of the world when we don't have thousands of Americans struggling below the poverty line. We need to help others in a way that doesn't hurt ourselves. That's not selfish, it is global, smart. Written by Randy Henderson of NEXT. Respond to this posting

Posted by Colleen Pohlig at March 30, 2004 04:37 PM