Back the failed socialism of the Plymouth Colony?
Free trade works among free nations
Red China is free?
Who knew
Free trade works among free nations
And with unfree nations? And what of free nations who don't reciprocate?
As someone who lived and worked abroad, I can tell you that Americans get the short end of the stick on free trade.
Most countries have tariff and non-tariff barriers on US goods and services.
Plus, there is the barrier of corruption. Americans are prevented by law to engage in foreign corruption, but other countries don’t care. They will buy off politicians and bureaucrats. Ask yourself why US companies don’t do high end construction projects abroad. But you got Chinese and Japanese companies bidding for projects everywhere.
Americans are sorely at a disadvantage for any kind of foreign contract ANYWHERE in the world.
Some will say, but what about McDonalds, Starbucks, Coke and Pepsi and all those products of US imperialism.
Those brands are licensed by local distributors. The parent company gets residuals, but everything is sourced locally.
If you are in high tech, the foreign country will steal the technology, then copy it and produce it at a fraction of the cost. This is how Japan got rich. Go to any international trade show and all the high tech that we produce is knocked off. And the US doesn’t enforce intellectual property rights in foreign courts.
For an American to enter a foreign market, he has to go through a regulatory and tax hell that surpasses anything a foreigner has to go through in the US.
And on top of that, try enforcing international contracts through foreign legal systems.
Most foreign countries don’t have liberal traitorous judges that will rule in favor of the foreigner every time.
In fact, foreigners will steal from Americans in business all the time, and if the American dares to go to court, he can end up dead or broke.
You're awfully proud of your ignorance, aren't you?
From the article:
It is no accident that after independence, a tariff was the very second bill signed by President Washington. It is also no accident that the Constitution—which notoriously does not authorize a great many things our government does today— explicitly does give Congress the authority “to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” (Article I, Section 8.) This fact drives flag-draped libertarians crazy, but there it is.