Exactly what has been the positive impact of the free trade policies of the last 20 years? The standard of living of the average household has declined. The US industrial infrastructure has been gutted and our enemy China is becoming a world power thanks to outsourcing of our manufacturing. The value of the dollar has declined and we have run massive trade deficits. How has this free trade with mercantilist nations helped the average citizen or contributed to our economic strength?
Why not cut out a lot of the pork by doing a historical analysis of all the current pork as opposed to the past pork to determine how much has been added over the years and then see what we can really get by on? When every classroom has a new computer for every kid ever year and the police cars are always new or only 2 yrs old you have a problem. Now I know those items are generally paid for by local taxes, however many grants are given by the federal government too. We are already taxed to death paying income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes, toll fees, inspection / registration fees on autos, high leisure item taxes, oil disposal taxes, Spanish American War taxes...so WHAT THE HE’LL are they saying we don’t enough taxes for. America needs a reset button. Liberals want everyone ELSE to pay THEIR share.
The free trade policies should never have been considered as the basis for firms to outsource US production. In fact as multinationals began this move, it should have been stopped. The idea of no tarriff policies are simply to ensure we could sell domestically made US goods abroad free from local protectionism and visa versa. At the time of Kennedy, there were little foreign manufactured goods imported and we were basically energy independant.
Firms, both domestic and foreign owned, decided to take advantage of the benefit of cheaper foreign labor and you have what we got now. The flip side was consumers are able to obtain lower cost goods, during the 60s and 70s.
As far as NAFTA goes which I believe you are addressing, there was amble argument against it, primarily from none other than Ross Perot who saw the danger.
In the end, it all comes down to dollars, who is spending them, who is collecting taxes, and whom is making profits. There is no easy solution. We could easily raise tariffs upon all imported goods and what happens? We support local labor and production and raise prices for consumers. That is what laisse faire is all about.