Globalization or Isolation? US Voters Weigh in on Economy
The air outside this factory in Northeast Philadelphia once smelled of cookies.
But the aroma, along with the 350 workers who for decades made Oreos and Ritz crackers disappeared last year when snack food giant Mondelez decided to close the plant and shift production elsewhere.
“It’s terrible, we have so many companies shutting down,” Art Millevoi said.
Across the street from the now abandoned factory, the owner of Millevoi Auto Sales and Service recalls how friends have lost work in recent years.
“We see so many people unemployed, so many older people, too, in their fifties who have lost their jobs,” said Millevoi. “They are on their third or fourth job, where our parents would have it for life and they would have pension and they would have social security. We are not guaranteed any of this.”
As Millevoi stands in his auto body shop, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump can be heard on a nearby television railing against trade deals and globalization.
“NAFTA [The North American Free Trade Agreement] was the worst trade deal in history, and China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization has enabled the greatest jobs theft in history,” Trump said.
The message resonates with Millevoi who says he likely will be forced to shutter one of his many Philadelphia area auto centers due to rising taxes and regulatory fees.
He says the government should do more to support small businesses and keep American companies like Mondelez from shifting their operations overseas to countries like Mexico.
[Kevin Kundla, the project superintendent at Commerce Construction Corporation] says that amid all the talk of Brexit and globalization, the United States cannot afford to go it alone.
“I don’t believe that the U.S. should isolate itself, it’s a global economy. It’s a global world. My son lives overseas and I travel overseas to Southeast Asia,” Kundla noted.
He points in the direction of the marine terminal, where containers are arriving from Mexico and China.
“I would love for Americans to have all the jobs, but I just think it’s a fact of life that globalization is here. It’s here to stay.”
