[Reaganwuzthebest]

For 200 years this country prospered without Free Trade agreements with third world countries. Now all of a sudden our economy will collapse without them, give me a break. Only the honest globalists/Free Traders will admit it's about that large pool of cheap labor corporations want to tap, nothing else.

[1rudeboy]

The irony of someone with your nic making that comment is too juicy to pass up. LOL

[Brilliant]

I don't have any problem with free trade, provided we're only talking about goods and services and capital, not labor.

[Oniolover]

Prospered for 200 years? What are you talking about? The US has only recently (last 50 years or so) been truly successful economically. This is largely due to trade with other countries (people and goods). If you can remember back to freshman Econ in college the main idea was "everyone benefits from trade". We may be losing low skills jobs to china but we are getting low prices as a trade of. Don't buy foreign made products if you don't like it.

*It is very difficult to tell where a product is made, that ford you drive was probably made aborad while my toyota was probably made in Georgia.

Noting is that simpel when it comes to eoconomics.

[Mase]

For 200 years this country prospered without Free Trade agreements

Even though our history is marked by many different phases of free trade and protectionism, I think it would be more honest to say that our country has prospered in spite of trade restrictions. Mainly because we have been laissez faire within our own borders.

Since WWII, we've been, for the most part, a free trade economy (thanks in part to Smoot-Hawley). Adjusted for inflation, our household assets have increased from just $6 trillion in 1945 to more than $60 trillion today. There is no doubt that freer trade has contributed greatly to this incredible building of wealth.

If you also look at our history you'll find that a lot of third world countries of the past have now become valued trading partners. Why would you would want to keep third world countries impoverished and unable to ever buy any of our value added goods and services?

[Alberta's Child]

For 200 years this country prospered without Free Trade agreements with third world countries.

That's a valid point, but for most of this country's history we prospered without any immigration laws, either.