My grandfather lost one of his businesses around the time of NAFTA, I don't know if it was specifically caused by NAFTA or the timing was just right, but he did lose one of them around that time. I've known a few that have either been hurt or had to become workers for someone else or the very minority were just jobless(minority with regard to those that I personally knew). I don't mean to downplay the tragedy of those that it does affect negatively. Don't think that of me(probably hard to do).

My grandfather was never fond of NAFTA, nor anyone in Kingsville rather was fond of it. What they couldn't do, and it's not easy to do, is look beyond just what it did in their little pocket of the world(and trust me that was a very very small pocket), because it didn't affect everyone the same way.

The irony is that benefits had the potential to be applied to everyone, those that were hit the hardest with the negatives couldn't yoke the full potential of the benefits, so I think that's were we get the bad blood.

However, considering that 3/4s our economy is based on how much we consume(rather or not that's good or bad that's another thread all by itself), free trade is the better thing for us(or as close to free trade as we can have). Now our economy switching over to a consumption one started long before now, some would argue that started with the baby boomers. Long before NAFTA.