America’s increasing involvement
with internationalism
1.
Immigrants from countries such as Mexico take jobs
away from Americans that need them because they
will agree to work for less pay and benefits.
2.
Any good business owner would hire the worker that
agreed to work for less pay and benefits, rather than
the worker that demands more.
Refusal to join League of Nations
after World War I
Initial refusal to enter World
War II
Several key events show the US’s shift to supporting a policy
of getting involved with international affairs
US joins League of
Nations after WWII
US joins the
World Trade
Organization
The WTO is a group of
nations that meets to
encourage more global free
trade. It is meant to allow
businesses to do business in
just about any part of the
world without hardly any
restrictions against them.
 This allows businesses to
make the greatest
amount of profit possible
by searching the entire
GLOBE for the best
markets.
 If businesses are making
money, they should also
be hiring workers, and
more jobs should
become available
worldwide.
 Businesses can more easily take advantage of countries that do not
protect workers’ rights, paying people almost nothing to work in their
factories and fields.
 In the US, workers can easily lose jobs if businesses decide to send their
factories to other countries where labor is much cheaper.
Pros
 Businesses can cut costs
and become more
profitable
 Business profits can
increase the number of
jobs available worldwide
Cons
 Businesses take
advantage of countries
where the government
does not protect its
citizens
 US workers can lose jobs
if companies send their
factories to foreign
countries (a practice
known as “offshoring”)
 Let’s say you have a problem with your computer. You
call the company’s “help desk” to get them to tell you
how to fix it.
 The employee you speak to is very helpful, and you fix
your computer. You ask her where she is working out
of, and she says she is working from India, on the other
side of the world!
 This person works in India
because the computer
company has to pay him or
her MUCH less money
than if they were to pay an
American to do the same
job.
 The company ends up
making more money, and
they charge you less to buy
your computer. However,
all of those jobs with this
AMERICAN company go to
other countries, not to
Americans.
JOBS
 NAFTA is an agreement between the countries of the
United States, Mexico and Canada that opens up free
trade between all three nations.
 It is designed to do basically the same things as the
WTO…
 Create free trade so businesses can do business where
they want to and make the most profit possible
 It has many of the same criticisms…
 American companies will send their jobs to foreign
countries!!!
 Those foreign workers will be getting paid slave wages!!!
Only the rich countries will benefit, and only the
extremely wealthy within those rich countries will
benefit…
Corporations will hugely expand their global control…
Workers around the world will have an increasingly
worse standard of living…
Answer the questions on your guided notes.
 WTO and NAFTA are free trade
Review
Impact of World
Trade Organization
(WTO) and North
American Free
Trade Agreement
(NAFTA)
agreements that make it easy for
corporations to do business in
most parts of the world. These
come about in the mid-1990s.
 Many American corporations have
taken advantage of free trade by
offshoring their manufacturing
jobs. They only need to pay foreign
workers a fraction of what they pay
American workers.
Offshoring means fewer jobs for
Americans, and it oftentimes means
foreign workers are getting paid extremely
low wages and working under harsh
conditions.
Review
Impact of World
Trade Organization
(WTO) and North
American Free
Trade Agreement
(NAFTA)
Manufacturing/fa
ctory jobs
A lot of this development occurred during the
Industrial Revolution!
This meant that
a lot of
Americans who
used to have
factory jobs in
the northeast
were now
unemployed.
Jobs move
south
Rust Belt
 Northern US
 PUSH factors for
migration (pushing
people away)
Sun Belt
 Southern US
 PULL factors for migration
Rust Belt
 Northern US
 PUSH factors for
migration (pushing
people away)
 Industrial jobs quickly
being offshored or sent
south, starting in the
1960s and 70s
 People do not like the cold
winters, harsh weather
Sun Belt
 Southern US
 PULL factors for
immigration
 Increasing number of jobs
become available (oil,
agriculture, military)
 Workers from the north
move into the south to get
jobs
 Mexican immigrants increase
population of cheap labor
 People attracted to the
beautiful weather and mild
winters