Dear Mr./Mrs. President,

Over the years our nation has gone from a manufacturing megapower to an importing shadow of its former glory. Because of our former ways of governing in the past decade we’ve trashed our economy, we’ve done this by shipping our jobs away overseas, decreased the value of our dollar, and set our nation even farther in debt.

One side thinks we’ve grown through deals such as NAFTA which allows taxless international trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Because of this taxless trade NAFTA helps lower the price of imported goods, it also lowers the price of goods because lower wages overseas makes it cheaper to manufacture goods which helps the common citizen here.

On the other side of this people think NAFTA was one of the worst deals the United States has ever made. They say this for a few reasons, those being that the lowering of cost to make goods overseas sends jobs out of the country, it helps big businesses by taking away the taxes they would have to pay, and it’s making small businesses suffer. NAFTA sends jobs out of the country, this is shown when the Economic Policy Institute said that “Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1993, the rise in the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico through 2002 has caused the displacement of production that supported 879,280 U.S. jobs. Most of those lost jobs were high-wage positions in manufacturing industries.” This means that wages overseas are much lower than here making things cheaper to make out of the country rather than here, this sends our manufacturing jobs away to save large corporations money. Secondly it upped our trade deficit significantly, this is shown when the Huffington Post said, “Such outcomes include a staggering $181 billion U.S. trade deficit with NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada and the related loss of 1 million net U.S. jobs under NAFTA, growing income inequality.”. This pretty much speaks for itself, 181 BILLION dollars is a lot of debt which sets our country back even more. Finally it increased inflation, this is shown when the Washington Post said “the USTR cites data showing that inflation-adjusted U.S. wages rose 19.3 percent between 1993 and 2007, as compared to only 11 percent in the fourteen years prior.” This means that our rate of inflation doubled after NAFTA which ruined the value of our dollar.

Our economy is damaged and you need to fix it. We are deep in debt and our dollar’s value has dropped significantly over the last few decades, our future is uncertain and it’s up to you to choose. Do you want to leave the economy as it is or are you gonna use your power to fix the debt and bring back american jobs? I can only hope you make the right decision.

Sincerely, Max M.

Wallach, Lori. "NAFTA at 20: One Million U.S. Jobs Lost, Higher Income Inequality." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

"North American Views on NAFTA." Globalization, edited by Louise I. Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

"NAFTA's Economic Impact." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2008. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.