ReasonTV Replay: Drew Carey on NAFTA

On the
20th anniversary of the North American Trade Agreement, it’s a
great time to revisit one of ReasonTV’s earliest productions –
Mexicans and Machines: Drew Carey on NAFTA.

Here is the orginal text from the June 28, 2008 video:

Campaign season is just getting warmed up, but looking
back on the primaries we’ve already seen plenty of the usual fare:
candidates shaking hands, hanging out at diners, and scaring voters
about foreigners who are
taking your jobs.

Sometimes the threat comes from China, Japan, or
outsourcing to India. Today, it’s NAFTA, the North American Free
Trade Agreement-you know, all those Mexicans taking our
jobs.

Senator Barack Obama joins the likes of CNN’s Lou Dobbs
in decrying NAFTA. So many free trade foes fret about cheap foreign
labor, yet they rarely holler about competitors who will work for
far less than any foreigner. Politicians don’t pay much attention
to it, but-from Terminator toIce
Pirates-Hollywood films have been warning us about humanity’s
inevitable war against the machines.

“Now, think about it,” says Reason.tv host Drew Carey.
“How are we supposed to compete against something that doesn’t get
paid, doesn’t get health insurance, and never goes on
breaks?”

Today, we don’t need human workers to book our travel,
do our banking, or file our taxes. From factory workers to symphony
conductors, countless workers are locked in battle with soulless
job stealers known as computers, websites, and
robots.

“No job is safe from the robot threat!” warns Carey. Of
course, the warning is more than a little tongue-in-cheek. There’s
no need to take a sledgehammer to a robot, because, although
technology shakes up the labor market, it ends up giving us higher
living standards as well as more and better job
opportunities.

Like technology, trade gives us more good stuff than
bad-yet Americans are likely to cheer technology and fear trade. No
doubt TV talkers and White House wannabes will keep stoking our
fears of foreigners until voters and viewers stop buying it-or
until robots snag their jobs, too.