Posted on 03/14/2006 5:16:28 PM PST by antisocial
Sheep's clothing and Adam Smith
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 13, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Vox Day
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
How does one resolve the question of the presumably cataclysmic meeting between the hitherto immovable rock and the historically unstoppable force? Perhaps by reversing the logic of the famous question: "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" Is the rock truly immovable? Or, alternatively, is the force actually unstoppable?
I mention this because I have long been a vocal advocate of free trade. I was raised on Adam Smith, inoculated against the usual collegiate flirtation with Marxism by controlled doses of Schumpeter taken in combination with "Das Kapital" and "The Communist Manifesto," and eventually found in the Austrian School of von Hayek, von Mises and Rothbard an intellectual home.
My first serious questions about the free-trade doctrine arose during the NAFTA debates. The fact that Democrats and Republicans were coming together in bipartisan support made me suspicious, as bipartisanship is a reliable sign that the American people are about to get screwed over in a big way, and it seemed very strange that a genuine free-trade agreement would require documentation exceeding the size of the average encyclopedia.
Thirteen years later, the honest observer is forced to admit that it is the opponents of NAFTA whose predictions have been proven to be correct. Free trade has not improved the Mexican economy enough to dissuade millions of Mexicans from coming to America, it has not improved the American wage rate and it has significantly reduced American industrial capacity. The base concept behind Smith's doctrine of free trade is a nation that stops protecting its inefficient sectors will turn its resources toward those sectors in which it has a genuine competitive advantage – apparently selling houses to each other is America's great strength.
Moreover, the recent history of the European Union demonstrates that free trade is the sheep's skin that clothes a very savage wolf indeed. The European Common Market was sold to the people of the formerly independent nations of Europe as a free-trade arrangement, and while it has not significantly benefited the economic welfare of those nations, it has managed to subjugate them to an unelected commission that rules over them, taxes them and from whose ever-more-invasive dictates they enjoy no appeal.
Can trade be free when the people aren't?
Now, it is certainly possible to argue that the free trade of the NAFTA variety is actually nothing of the sort and that the Third Way social engineering of the European Union is wholly distinct from the free-trade doctrine from which it was birthed. In fact, this is precisely how I have previously attempted to resolve the dilemma.
However, that reasoning is all-too similar to that of the public-school teachers who insist that merely spending more money on teachers will lead to better public schools, and socialists who argue that despite dozens of failed historical examples, the One True Method of communism has not yet been applied. At some point, even the most lovely theory has to pass the more prosaic test of practice or else be relegated to the children's nursery of daydreams and wishful thinking.
I am not arguing, yet, that it is time to do so with regard to free trade. However, for the first time in years, I find myself forced to re-examine the merits of this long-hallowed doctrine, and to do so with a jaundiced and critical eye. It is certain that there are false prophets of free trade – that they exist neither confirms nor denies that the god itself is false.
The deeper question is this: In a globalist world that denies not only the sovereignty of the nation-state, but even its right to exist, is there any fundamental relevance to a doctrine that is defined by the asserted benefit to the nation-state and its citizens? If there is no nation-state and there is no freedom for the individual, then where is the free trade and to whom does it apply?
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Vox Day is a novelist and Christian libertarian. He is a member of the SFWA, Mensa and the Southern Baptist church, and has been down with Madden since 1992. Visit his Web log, Vox Popoli, for daily commentary and responses to reader email.
We have created more than 20 million jobs for the 30 million illegal aliens that live here.
BINGO!
BINGO!
10 million illegal aliens without jobs. Whose responsibillity is it to cloth, feed, house, provide dental and medical for these people?
Pretty typical of you to tell only half the story. Our trade balance has gone from a plus to huge deficit.
| Month | Exports | Imports | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1992 | 3,060.6 | 2,493.6 | 567.0 |
| February 1992 | 3,201.1 | 2,612.4 | 588.7 |
| March 1992 | 3,527.8 | 2,944.4 | 583.4 |
| April 1992 | 3,514.1 | 2,940.8 | 573.3 |
| May 1992 | 3,404.8 | 2,962.6 | 442.2 |
| June 1992 | 3,472.4 | 3,147.4 | 325.0 |
| July 1992 | 3,522.6 | 2,860.8 | 661.8 |
| August 1992 | 3,149.7 | 2,996.0 | 153.7 |
| September 1992 | 3,532.1 | 3,007.7 | 524.4 |
| October 1992 | 3,437.2 | 3,398.4 | 38.8 |
| November 1992 | 3,400.9 | 3,014.9 | 386.0 |
| December 1992 | 3,369.0 | 2,832.1 | 536.9 |
| TOTAL | 40,592.3 | 35,211.1 | 5,381.2 |
| Month | Exports | Imports | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2005 | 9,196.2 | 12,105.6 | -2,909.4 |
| February 2005 | 8,975.7 | 12,643.9 | -3,668.3 |
| March 2005 | 9,875.8 | 14,133.8 | -4,258.0 |
| April 2005 | 9,842.2 | 14,242.1 | -4,399.9 |
| May 2005 | 9,930.5 | 14,406.3 | -4,475.8 |
| June 2005 | 10,090.7 | 14,855.0 | -4,764.3 |
| July 2005 | 9,222.1 | 12,741.6 | -3,519.5 |
| August 2005 | 10,611.6 | 14,831.6 | -4,220.0 |
| September 2005 | 10,287.3 | 14,600.3 | -4,313.0 |
| October 2005 | 10,904.9 | 15,698.2 | -4,793.3 |
| November 2005 | 10,900.8 | 15,465.5 | -4,564.7 |
| December 2005 | 10,211.2 | 14,474.0 | -4,262.8 |
| TOTAL | 120,048.9 | 170,197.9 | -50,149.0 |
Sure. Those economies were in the tank. There was noplace for them to go but up. That means nothing.
That's pretty funny. They had to create a whole new international beauracracy to oversee "free trade". Yep. There's no corruption in the WTO - no anti-Americanism in the WTO.
There is a difference between traveling from Point A to Point B at 30mph, and 60mph. Protectionists consistently fail to understand that simple fact.
I really don't mean to doubt you but maybe then you can explain why I can barely find anything made in America...
Oh, you said our exports...So our quantity level has drastically increased but we send it all out thru the export market...That must be because everyone else in the world buys American made goods except for us...
But considering we no longer make appliances, small or large, clothes, towels and blankets, nails, valves, plumbing, lumber, dishes, razors, machines, machine tools,and thousands of other things we used to make here, maybe you can point out the massive types of products that we now ship out...
While that may be true, it's also true that the OLD EU members are dying...They are working on a downward spiral to get competetive with the 'new' members...Just as you guys are advocating we do with Mexico and China...
No problem...George B covered that one in Cafta...
And as soon as the new members adopt protectionist policies, their downward spiral will begin.
Missed that one too. The Central American Free Trade Agreement contains a section regarding illegal immigration from Mexico?
Nope...We get it perfectly...The Democrats will destroy this country at 30 mph...The Republicans are doing it at 60...That's an easy one...
I've read that it does for Central America and I believe I read it applies to 'all' the Americas...
Oh, please share.
Then work to elect Democrat candidates that you find more appealing.
Pretty typical of you protectionists to not be able to tell us why a current account deficit is bad. The last time we had a current account surplus was during a recession. If what you claim is true, Japan (no growth economy and 7 years of deflation) and Germany (12% unemployment and no growth economy) should be the world's ideal economies. Which would you prefer?
Here is an excellent place to start your research. One of the most comprehensive websites out there. Most protectionists will react to it like vampires to garlic.
Yah, and real DISPOSABLE INCOME has dropped.
Median wage has dropped--it was high-water in the mid-1970's.
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