Clarifications on the Case for Free Trade

Ludwig von Mises Institute ^ | 4/12/04 | Paul Craig Roberts

[rdb3]

not playing the Race Card, are you?

Nope. But some clarification would be nice.

Show 'em my motto!

[1rudeboy]

raybbr and ninenot at work

[1rudeboy]

Please see my #366. I understand that it's impossible to sound-out a minus symbol as you read, but surely someone can explain it to you?

[Toddsterpatriot]

Doomed.Doomed.

[1rudeboy]

When speaking of net worth, is using the phrase "heading in the wrong direction," as I did in my #290, sufficient, or do some of you need to see pictures?

[GOP_1900AD]

Aha, got it! ;) Good luck, just remember, pay yourself first.

[1rudeboy]

sorry, #366 should be #336

[Now I'm really in for it. For all you youngsters out there, let this be a lesson. Posting information of a personal nature on the Internet simply exposes you to as hominem attacks, as this thread shows.]

Of course, the question remains, if my net worth was a positive $100,000.00--would that disqualify me from having an opinion?

[GOP_1900AD]

Wrong you are. I would never advocate government involvement in setting production goals, and am in favor of much less government micromanagement of what companies do *on US territory*. The only area where I am in favor of more regs is in the very narrow area of doing business with / in anti Western and Communist nations. In essence, a small set of harshly enforced rules governing geopolitical impacts. In other words, a very classical, truely Conservative position, which Wm. McKinley would well have recognized.

[raybbr]

Thanks for the laugh!!!

BTW, you'll notice tha we are trying to decide whether or not we should hire 1rudeboy otherwise known as direct competition for Al Gore's accomplishments.

[XBob]

Did anyone see the short on the news tonight, about a US gold mining corporation paying protection money to the Muslim militants in the Philippines (over 2 million$), while our people over there were being held hostage and beheaded?

And when they took it to the US government anti-terrorist people, they refused to accept it.

Here are some short notes I made:

Americans corporations
giving funds to terrorist groups
abu sayeff - muslim terrorist
US gold mining company
Echo bay mining (not sure - name didn't come across static)
colorado
philippines

[ninenot]

I'm the good looking one.

[ninenot]

Lemmesee, heah, Al....

He claims to be worth negative $100K, but has experience with steel building frames and says he has a degree. So why'd he send these 500 pieces of blank paper with his application?

Unnnnnnhhhhh, Bob--do you suppose that's his plan for, uh, his first three years of work?

[XBob]

Essentially, our tariff system is all screwed up, as it is based basically on a 300 year old commodity type system and negotiated tariff rules.

What we need to do is develop a new computerized tarrif system which takes into account the actual cost of living in the country of manufacture. That way, if for example, the cost of living in a country is 50% of the cost in the US, the cost of the tariff would be 50%.

Before computers we couldn't do this. Now we can, so we can level the costs of living and then let the variations of skills, techniques, managment, taxes, etc vary as they will for final price, so that there can be a real 'level' playing field.

Or we could work it with currency values too.

But, there is no way we will be able to stay ahead, when my apartment costs $500 here and $10 in india for the same apartment.

[cyborg]

I was having a spirited debate about politics with my mom and she said that US oil companies have been down in South America greasing palms since she was a little girl (esp. Chavez and his ilk conspiring with the Arabs to steal oil from Trinidad). I didn't see what you saw, but I believe it.

[Torie]

You're no Torie ... what a deceiving handle....

Thanks for sharing your opinion with me. Let me share mine with you. I think protectionists are ersatz conservatives that constitute fifth columnist vipers in the conservative movement. They favor, effectively, government subsidies for the few at the cost of the many. They also are anti freedom individual liberty because both are constricted in effecting this unprincipled and execrable subsidy.

[XBob]

please compare the cost of living for an average laborer to live in the US, versus the cost of living for an average laborer to live in China.

And, if you own any assets which produce income which are used by US labor, how you propose reducing the costs of those to a level where they will cost the same for a US laborer in the US as they cost for a Chinese laborer in China? And don't blame the price differential on government regulations or, let's just say, government regulations here increase the cost of labor by 50%.

How do you propose to permit our laborors the same costs to live as for the chinese laborer or even 50% more than the Chinese laborer?

[rdb3]

How do you propose to permit our laborors the same costs to live as for the chinese laborer or even 50% more than the Chinese laborer?

You're missing my overall point. Your cost of living argument's solution leads right back to the government, which is my overall point. And I'm talking federal, state, and local levels of government. The taxes, regulations, fees, et al. are the real problem. If they aren't addressed, what's the point?

Show 'em my motto!

[ninenot]

Vote Libertarian, again. That way, you won't have anything to say about running the country, thank God.

[XBob]

bttt - "I am not a socialist nor am I a super-capitalist. I think the the government has its finger in too much and at the same time I think that corporate officers don't care at all about employees. Call it what you will. I call it respect for humanity something that corporations do not have."

The free-traitors want no responsibility for the society which supports them, they only want to take.

People are just a 'cost of doing business' and have no intrinsic value, dead or alive. The might as well be asphalt in the road, a cost of making money paid to build a road.

[XBob]

307-bttt "Plus don't forget Alternative Minimum Tax - the hidden double dip. Don't be fooled people. The Free Traders are after *your* money. Not only for their own pockets, but to feed the never ending social program monster which will result if we lose good paying jobs which people who want to work hard but perhaps lack perfect credentials, can hold. There will be a more bimodal distribution of income, the way things a going - not good if you want smaller government."

The free-traitors can't seem to figure this one out.