Editor 's note : Virg Bernero is the mayor of Lansing , Michigan and chairman of the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition ( MMAC ) . He is one of the mayors of U.S. cities appearing on `` American Morning '' this week . Mayor Virg Bernero says the American worker has been sold out by backers of free trade . ( CNN ) -- While America reels from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression , it is time that we take a deeper look at the root causes of our current predicament . The cold , hard truth is that the unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street has sold out the American worker and exported our standard of living . Driven by the insatiable greed of Wall Street profiteers and accelerated by the false promise of free trade , our manufacturing base has been chased out of this country and along with it the livelihood of millions of hard-working Americans . It 's fashionable these days among the politicians , pundits and so-called experts to claim that free trade is actually good for us . They say it enables us to buy cheaper goods made with cheap foreign labor and this , in turn , raises our standard of living . With all due respect , the free traders need to ask themselves a more fundamental question : how will Americans buy those goods when they do n't even have a paycheck that covers their mortgage , much less the college tuition for their children ? Watch Mayor Bernero speak to American Morning 's John Roberts » . More than one pundit has told me I need to take a broader view . As the mayor of one of America 's countless manufacturing communities , the only view that matters is the one my citizens see every day : Record job losses , home foreclosures and , thanks to the Wall Street wizards , a credit crunch so severe that it is nearly impossible to finance a new car . This is n't a predicament faced just by Michigan or the Midwest . This is the story of America , told in thousands of desperate households from Connecticut to California . The pundits claim our manufacturing sector is a relic of the old economy . We 're told that we just ca n't compete anymore . We 're told that our future is in the service economy , that jobs in health care and finance and knowledge-based industries will recreate the prosperity our nation once knew . The truth is that our industrial heritage is an example of everything that was right with our nation 's economy . Good jobs with good benefits created the middle class in this country , and now it is being systematically dismantled under the banner of free trade and globalism . Those who continue to espouse free trade ominously warn that protectionism is the wrong path for our nation ; that challenging the holy doctrine of free trade invites a global trade war . Yet we already face rampant protectionism across the globe . Pursuing a free trade agenda in a protectionist world is tantamount to unilateral disarmament . Our trading partners routinely employ taxes , tariffs and subsidies that underwrite their exports and restrict American products from entering their home markets . They use currency manipulation to reduce the relative cost of their goods here in the USA . The fact is we 're not competing against other companies ; we 're competing against other countries . I 've toured the Hyundai plant in Asan , Korea . The Koreans are wonderful people , but their technology is n't any better and they 're not working any harder than Americans . The difference is that Hyundai does n't have to pay legacy costs . The Korean government takes care of their retirees . Hyundai does n't pay health care costs because they have national heath care . If you do n't think that 's an unfair advantage , you 're kidding yourself . Many Americans are unaware that China sold 10 million cars last year -- more than General Motors or Toyota . I can assure you the Chinese government is part and parcel of that success . They 're involved in their industry . The Korean government is involved in their industry . If we are going to have any chance to compete globally , our government must get involved in our industry and help us rebuild America 's industrial might before it is too late . There 's no question that we need this stimulus package . We need the reinvestment in America 's infrastructure and in the working people of this country . We need tax cuts delivered directly to the American worker . We need education and retraining for the `` green collar '' jobs of the future . But we need more than a short term shot in the arm . We need a long-term strategy to rebuild the American economy that provides jobs and economic security to the millions of hard-working American families who have been sold down the river by unfair trade policies . We need fair trade agreements so that the most productive workers in the world -- American workers -- can put their skills to work and compete in the global economy . We recently watched our athletes successfully compete in the Olympics against nations of the world . When the playing field is level , Americans can compete against the best from any nation . With fair trade instead of free trade , American workers can once again bring home the gold . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Virg Bernero .
Mario Bernero : Washington and Wall Street have driven out the American worker . He says we must destroy America 's industrial might before it is too late . Mussolini : Free trade in protectionist world is like unilateral disarmament .