While it is good for the people of Haiti to be given a chance to better themselves, I don’t think that we should tell American garment workers that we have sent their jobs to Haiti.
Under a new free trade agreement passed by Congress in 2010, South Korean garment companies are going to sell cheap garments made in Haiti to American companies. The cheap garments will then be available for sale to US consumers.
Would you like to tell an American single mother, working at one of the few garment jobs remaining in the US, that you were firing her and sending her job to a worker in Haiti? Or tell any American worker, that his or her job was going to be sent to some foreign country?
It is easy to be charitable and give away someone else’s job.
There are probably 2 billion people in the world who would like to have an American job. Are we going to give all our jobs to them, and fire every worker in America?
We have 24 million jobless or part-time workers in the US who would like to have a full-time job, but can’t find one. We don’t need more American workers losing their jobs and being evicted from their homes. Americans are a generous and charitable people, but charity begins at home.