Posted on 03/01/2010 7:22:44 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
This poster doesn't get it.
Conservatives are so consistently, so often, so very right. So clearly.
About so many things!!
Why is it, so many are so blind to what is happening to our nation, as a result of our historically STUPID trade policies?
Is it that conservativism is by definition a resistance to too much change, and that "free trade" was a cherished belief for so long there's simply a resistence to noticing it's become dangerous?
Because the business interests at the top could make mucho money by selling America.
Now, there is not much left to sell.
And a perfect example is how Toyota and other Asian manufacturers manage to build vehicles right here that Americans buy over other Asian brands made in Asia. It’s not important where it’s made. If you make the right product at the right price, people will buy.
LoL. I am sure you will see the light some day :)
“True. Most free traders are corporate types that want to import goods that cheaper than can be bought here. They are the same people that want to bring illegals here to push wages down for American workers.”
There is just no way around it, those who oppose free trade don’t want to compete. Period. Making cheap toys and crappy clothing just aren’t jobs that have a future in the United States. Those low skill type jobs will move to wherever the lowest cost labor is for them. The result is, we end up getting those products on the cheap and can spend our hard earned money buying other stuff. When our workforce is motivated instead of sitting around collecting an eternity’s worth unemployment benefits, they would learn a new skill and get a job where they can be productive and compete in the world market.
If the anti-free traders had their way, we’d still have our choice between only the big 3 US car makers - all whom produced sheer garbage by the end of their glory days. Those Unions and UAW workers fought the entry of Honda, Toyota, etc, etc into the market because they KNEW they could not compete. It’s not complicated.
The only groups that really, knowledgeably oppose free trade are labor unions and labor union employees. Their reasons for opposing free trade are solid, not good for the United States, but solid. Quite simply, they know they can’t compete against companies throughout the world, while at the same time negotiating for their employees inflated salaries and silly benefit packages.
It is a globalized world, roll with it and stop the fantasies where we can hold on to useless jobs that are better served being done in 3rd world countries (you know, so they can industrialize too) and protect unionized yet often incompetent, over-paid, lazy workers.
Other than those pesky unnecessary things, why, they're the cats pajamas!
Cheers!
I love the trite argument that if someone is willing to work cheaper then we must compete, even if they are a Chinese slave or a defacto slave. There is nothing wrong with a little structure and rules.
The constutution enshrines independence above all. The trans-national businessman should not be allowed to do thing destructive to America.
what is needed is fair trade not free trade!
If a nation charges a tarrif, impose an equal tarrif on them!
We are being royally screwed by other countries currently.
You have it backwards. Being your neighbor obligates me to neither pay for your healthcare nor buy products and services you wish to produce and force me to buy. Obama voters and protectionists operate from the same sentiment; a claim on their neighbors' wealth with no moral underpinning, just faux patriotism. What is it exactly that makes your claim on my wealth superior to your average Chinese citizen again?
Protectionism is for whiny, nose picking losers driven by unhealthy, base human impulses. Why fit that profile when you have the option being better?
Destructive things like providing quality products to Americans at low prices?
Cool, got it.
And,,, when your wife says she could bring in an extra 500 bucks a day, working as a prostitute on the side while you are at work, would that be ok with you? I mean hey, it would be a _great_ improvement in the bottom line. The person who does the family checkbook would be thrilled!
Or do you value some intangible things more than the ultimate maximum possible profit?
Free trade is only useful when it strengthens our nation, and when we are selling. But when we are merely the cheap market for other nations, it hurts this country. WE become nothing more than the market nation in a colonial economic model.
It’s not faux patriotism. Faux patriotism is when a businessman who is just as happy to live in London, Shanghai, or Brazil forever,, uses influence with politicians to dismantle the economy in the USA as much as they can,,, and then labels our objection as “faux patriotism”.
Free trade between the states in the USA worked out well, but we had fairly common values, common currency, and similar labor practices/laws.
Other countries, using slave labor, and unequal practices are undercutting prices, and driving USA firms out of business. I am especially concerned about manufacturers. We need to keep enough industrial base to be able to produce our own airplanes, tanks, etc.
The car companies were very helpful during WWII in the war effort, so I surely hope that Ford continues to do well at least. I thought the goal of Free Trade was to bring the rest of the world's standard of living up, not to bring ours down.
I exercise my freedom every day to buy food from local farmers, and bypass food from China at Walmart. One day they could just put poison in all that food, and Americans will be as dead as the dogs that died from Chinese crap in the pet food.
If there was an international prize for the greatest non sequitur in the history of history, you'd be a shoe in.
My point is that you were idiotic to chide anyone as a faux patriot for opining that American sovreignty and independence outweigh a stock price.
I see you have no response to me pointing out that some things actually DO matter more than the cheapest price or the maximization of stock price to the n’th degree.
The destruction of the manufacturing base in a country is never good, no matter how you spin it. The Germans don’t seem to think so either. Go visit,,you see factories everywhere. Even making things like consumer electronics, etc,,.
Not everyone can be an MBA. A nation needs solid jobs in the manufacturing sector. A blind man can see that government policies have caused a trainwreck in this nations manufacturing sector. It was compounded when the international bankers,,the G-S types, had their paid-for politicians give us “free trade”.
So just how far are you willing to go restricting people's and corporations' liberties to enact your version of fairness and utopia? And given how the collective good as you see it is obviously so much more important than individual liberties you are willing to trample, how are you in any way, shape, matter or form a conservative?
“and bypass food from China at Walmart”
Very wise. I do too,, that crap can rot on their shelves. Human waste on their fields, anti-freeze in some foods, chemicals in others, the list is endless.
Next time you talk to anyone in government, ask them "How many laws are enough?"
Who said anything about a stock price? Protectionism screws consumers, not producers. Walmart would be happy to source domestically if everybody else had to, and of course impoverish it's customers by charging far more. And how will we ever fight a war when so many Legos and Snuggies are being made in China? If we just had a few laws, high school dropouts could be making $40 and hour doing low skill labor that otherwise destitute Chinese are willing to do for $2 a day. Then everything would be fine.
I won't call you idiotic. But seriously, if your life depended on the correct answer, what percentage of your position is based on hard-headed, realistic economic analysis about the world as it really is today, and what percentage is based some sort of magical thinking that if we could only regulate things properly, while restricting those dastardly corporations and Chinamen, we could get back to the good old days when Pa could make a good living without knowing a thing?
Ok, you’re right. Things are so much better now that the manufacturing is finished here in America. And Seattle is going to be *awesome* when Boeing moves airliner production to China. And i think it’s way cool that we structured our laws to make it impossible to mine or drill here!
And shutting down farming in California is grand! We can get it cheaper from Mexico anyway. (whats a little ecoli among friends?) And i feel way safer that Mexican truckers can drive all over our country,, when i think Mexico, i think “safe well-maintained truck”.
BTW care to guess who just LOVES open borders? NAFTA free traders, thats who. The same mentality has noooo prob with open borders. The more open, the better.
Open your eyes. Government laws, passed for bankers are just as dangerous to our freedom as slavishly doing what unions bribed them to do in the 60s and 70s.
Yeh, and watch out for the toothpaste.
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