Replies

“Sean mentions what a lot of American are thinking. That America seems to need to get back our manufacturing, and everything which we need.”

The meaning of “free trade”, like so many other concepts, has been twisted over time by the monied interests. To the founders, “free trade” meant US merchants could trade with any nation they wished. The ships of the colonies were restricted and only English merchants were allowed to import many goods. The new nation was open to ships of all nations and the merchants of the new USA were free to trade with merchants in any other nation.

“Free trade” at the time did not mean an absence of tariffs. In fact the new nation used the revenue from customs duties as the primary source of funds to pay for the federal government until the adoption of the income tax via the 16th Amendment in 1913. In fact, during the period of rapid industrialization after the Civil War, the US government pursued a high tariff policy to protect developing US industry from dumping by manufacturers in European nations.

Today the concept of “free trade” has be corrupted to mean the elimination of tariffs and quotas. Unfortunately, while the USA has eliminated tariffs, quotas, and non-tariff barriers other nations have kept in place mercantilist policies which handcuff US companies even though their factories have unfettered access to the US market. The Chinese have been particularly bad, using WTO status to target industries in the US for elimination and then destroy those industries by subsidizing exports, underwriting the construction of domestic factories, manipulating currency, violating with impunity intellectual property, illegally funneling political contributions to US politicians (i.e. Charlie Trie and Bill Clinton), as well as using bribery and kickbacks to destroy US factories. Once the factories in an industry are gone, the supply chains dry up and another piece of the foundation of the US industrial economy is gone. This is as much a national security issue as it is a trade and jobs issue. The simple fact is, the US could not fight World War II today with its current industrial infrastructure and supply chains. Is this prudent for a country that can be self sufficient?

Over 100 years of free trade (founders definition) and high tariffs allowed the US to develop the strongest industrial infrastructure and economy on the plant as well as a standard of living for its people unmatched by any nation. Twenty five years of free trade (Wall Street definition) has resulted in the gutting of the manufacturing sector, loss of jobs, loss of self sufficiency required for national security, the partial destruction of the middle class and the accelerated accumulation of national wealth by the top 1%, the rise of China as an industrial and military rival to the US, and sustained declines in average household income for working Americans for the first time in our history.

Unfortunately both parties are funded by the globalist financiers and speculators on Wall Street who are enriching themselves at the expense of the middle class. As long as the Republican Party is funded by the country club set, it will support the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama economic policies responsible for the economic malaise and destruction of the manufacturing sector. It is hard to envision Palin or anyone else reforming the party without finding a new source of revenue.