Posted on 03/10/2006 12:33:17 PM PST by groanup
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
The New Protectionists - How to create a real security crisis.
Friday, March 10, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
Dubai Ports World finally threw in the kaffiyah on its American operations yesterday, agreeing to sell them "to a U.S. entity." We hope that entity turns out to be Halliburton, if only for the torment that would cause certain eminences on Capitol Hill.
Dubai Ports was susceptible to this political stampede because it was an Arab-owned company buying port operations, which Democrats have played up as uniquely vulnerable. But this is also the second such mugging of a foreign investor in recent months, following last year's demagoguery against a Chinese company's bid to buy Unocal, a middling American oil company. If Members of Congress want a real security crisis--a financial security crisis--they'll keep this up.
What's especially dangerous here is that we're seeing the re-emergence of the "national security" protectionists. They were last seen in the late 1980s, when Japan in particular was the target of a political foreign-investment panic. The Japanese were buying Pebble Beach and Rockefeller Center, and so America was soon going to be a colony of Tokyo. A Japanese bid for Fairchild Semiconductor of Silicon Valley was seen as a threat to American defense. Those fears seem laughable now. But here we go again, with new targets of anxiety.
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(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Read the constitution. The reasons we tolerate the existence of government are very well defined.
Well? We are all so glad to know that. Want to embellish?
Free trade has depressed wages in this country and increased individual's taxes. It has shifted the burden of taxation from Foreign companies to American citizens. The price of the foreign goods in most cases are sold slightly below the price of American goods. American companies must either cut costs (think pensions, healthcare, wages) or cut jobs to compete with the lower cost of foreign goods because the foreign countries do not have programs like social security, environmental regulations, or a standard of living of an American in most cases. The requirement of cost cutting by American businesses and outsourcing further erode the tax base in America shifting more of the responsibilities for the expense of our way of life on the individual backs. This causes Congress to increase taxes to pay for all the programs that we have in the US. I won't argue the merits of these "programs" I'm against most of them. In sum, the concept of Free trade pushes the tax burden from the company level to the individual. Since you now have to pay .40 a gallon of gas in tax you have less money to spend on you own needs and thus you must charge your Visa. Also Free trade cause a net outflow of wealth from this country giving America less power in the world.
It's one of the most immoral places on the face of the planet. I suppose you'd prefer living in Bangkok or Dubai, to living in America as well?
I don't give a flying c%%p where taxes came from. Don't you understand? Taxes take money away from people who are trying to acquire wealth and put into the coffers of people who claim to be champions of the poor. They take that money and but votes. It isn't really hard to figure out is it?
this sums it up well:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Don't see anything about Swiss chocolate in there.
If not for taxes you would have no police no fire department, no roads, no bridges, no army, no regulated market place, no hospitals. Not all taxes are the same.
It is the greatest economic success story in the world. The USA is second. Hong Kong is nothing more than a rock with a whole bunch of disparate people who are at odds with each other. Because the governor of Hong Kong for the majority of its existence insisted on no interference, the colony prospered. It prospered for one reason: they left it alone.
It is one of the wealthiest places on the face of the earth.
You idiotic statement about morality in Hong Kong is not something I can deal with without calling you names. And I refuse to do that. Sorry.
Well, if that's the case then the problem is taxes, isn't it? Actually, that is always the problem. Why don't freepers see that? Shoot.
Swiss chocolate. Ok let's say you have a choice between Swiss chocolate and Hersey bar. They both are about the same price you can buy one or the other. If you buy the swiss chocolate some of that money goes to the retailer, some to the government, some to the transporter, and some to the swiss company that makes the bar. that swiss company will take that money and either pay its workers, invest in more factories, pay its taxes so its government can build roads, bridges etc in Switzerland thereby increasing the standard of living in that country. If you had bought the Hersey bar your money would have gone to the Hersey company that would have used the money to pay its workers, invest in factories etc, pay dividends, taxes etc in America thereby increasing the standard of living in the US. Understand better? This is a simple example but it illustrates the basic well
the colony prospered.
It was a colony with the full protection of the British crown.
The same way you teach a horse to sing hymns.
Soooo..., In your view the best we can do is to have the government take care of us. I can agree that some of your scenario is correct. Actually, no I can't. What can't be done better by private citizens with a profit motive? What? The education system is the best example. If there is one thing we can do for our children that would benefit them more than any other thing it would be to abolish the national department of education and then, without hesitation, abolish all state departments of education.
In such a scenario our children can finally be educated. Would you not agree?
I would suggest you stop that and wake up. GW is doing it. Remember the purple thumbs?
If you are going to desroy me fine, I'll have to respond tomorrow. I'm done for tonight. Salute to all who have participated in a lively discussion. Salute to the advent of free speech.
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