sad but true.

U.S. auto manufacturers and their advocates in Congress have long complained about unfair non-tariff barriers. It turns out that these were the Korean safety and environmental standards that U.S. cars were unable to meet. In a special exemption for U.S. cars, up to 25,000 cars per U.S. manufacturer can now enter Korea with lower safety standards than Korean cars. Environmental standards—and labor standards, for that matter—have always been dubious subjects of FTAs, ones with their own built-in constituencies and special interest advocates. But in a very interesting, hypocritical twist, under the new KORUS, it is U.S. auto manufacturers who are given the exemptions from meeting higher environmental standards.
As part of the redeployment, USFK also plans to build new facilities to improve quality of life for American soldiers stationed in Korea. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, those amenities include a new fitness center at Camp Humphreys "complete with a gym, indoor pool, running track, and four-story parking garage."
In addition to an eight-lane, 25-meter indoor swimming pool, the center will feature a 626-foot indoor running track; separate rooms for cardio fitness, circuit training, free weights, and group exercise; basketball and racquetball courts; a martial arts training room; and climbing walls, the newspaper added.
But Korean farmers chafe at the idea their land will be taken away so foreign soldiers can feel more comfortable.
"They don't want to move," Father Moon said of the farmers, many of whom are elderly. "They refused their compensation. They don't want to leave their homeland. They don't want this experience for a third time."
While villagers in South Korea go on hunger strike to protest the American base extension, another group of farmers has descended on Washington to protest a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Washington and Seoul. The U.S. and South Korean governments are conducting a round of negotiations in the capital this week
The protesting delegation is lead by the Korean trade union movement and the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation, who complain that free trade has meant plummeting rice prices in Korea leading to massive bankruptcies.
"Even before the FTA the cost of rice cultivation is now higher than the price that farmers can get," said Lee Heung Se, vice chair of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federations. "Now we have high farming debt and many farmers leave the countryside and come to large cities. Small schools in the countryside continue to close and the farmers who move to the city for jobs are having difficulty adjusting to city life, finding housing, and securing education for their children."
"In the end when its time to pay off the debt many are so discouraged that hundreds are committing suicide each year," he added.
The Korean delegation has the support of America's major labor federations Change to Win and the AFL-CIO.
"This administration seems to think that 'free trade' means they get to freely trade workers' rights and protections for the benefit and profit of global corporations," the chair of Change to Win, Anna Burger, said in a statement. "We need fair trade, not trade that leads to fewer jobs, lower pay, worsened working conditions, and environmental degradation."
U.S. labor groups compared a possible FTA with Korea with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
<strong>Labor groups blamed NAFTA for the loss of more than 1 million jobs and job opportunities in the U.S., and increasing downward pressure on both U.S. and Mexican wages.</strong> They also pointed to the economic problems in Korea that have led to an increased speculative investment and "jobless growth" and expressed concern that the proposed FTA could accelerate and deepen these trends.
For Korean unionist Lee Heung Se, there is a parallel between his group's opposition to the Free Trade Agreement and the Pyongtaek farmers' protests against a new military base.
"The Pyongtaek farmers struggle against the U.S. military base is a struggle against the U.S. military domination in our country and the struggle against the free trade agreement is a struggle against U.S. economic domination on Korean farmers," he said. "In this way, the two struggles are connected."
Sometimes I lose track of your thinking. I am for less government, not more. I'm of the belief that less taxes for all, the better. But there are services only government can provide. It's those critical services which should be the focus of government, not all of those extraneous entitlement programs.KKB wrote:Baba, Mighty mouse and the rest; you guys do not get it.
The Dems want trickle up economy so that all the poor and soon the rest of us become reliant on all the freebie roses smell good!.
the left are the real power mongers. look at all the real rich people in this country. Gates and the likes. They are rich, but they are not republican. They are filthy rich, but want to tax the "wealthy". they are surely excluded.
Poo on you for living in a fake world.
History repeats itself. Nazi Germany in a new form?
Not really,but somewhat close.
The rich German families like Krup and the like had a big hand in government before and during WW2.
Like smacky said, im tired.
KKB wrote:Baba, Mighty mouse and the rest; you guys do not get it.
The Dems want trickle up economy so that all the poor and soon the rest of us become reliant on all the freebie roses smell good!.
the left are the real power mongers. look at all the real rich people in this country. Gates and the likes. They are rich, but they are not republican. They are filthy rich, but want to tax the "wealthy". they are surely excluded.
Poo on you for living in a fake world.
History repeats itself. Nazi Germany in a new form?
Not really,but somewhat close.
The rich German families like Krup and the like had a big hand in government before and during WW2.
Like smacky said, im tired.
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