Free trade is amoral. As a Christian I wouldn’t trade in those things. Government has a clear role in trade: keep the lanes of trade open, enforce laws against fraud, and provide a justice system with teeth.
My point about manufacturing was to contrast it with the move away from farming into manufacturing. People at the time expected starvation, but that didn’t happen. US manufacturing is alive and very, very well. It just employs fewer workers because of technological innovation and a move toward thinking rather than labor.
You say that a good idea produces nothing, but history and reality say otherwise. The person who is able to bring the house plan builds nothing. He cut no tree, nailed no wood, and installed no item in the home, but his idea and coordinating thoughts brought it all together. Ideas do produce something. Ideas are what America is known for, not farming or manufacturing. Those are simply the result of thinking combined with liberty.
Your point about government bias is well taken. I don’t accept any form of crony capitalism. The General Welfare is exactly that - general. The minute government is aware of who will benefit from a law is the moment corruption begins. Government managed economies, like Chinas, are no good.
So you would permit the drug trade? I assume that you would support government prohibitions on the export of national security related technology or do you?
I have not ascribed morality to free trade, but free trade can be used as a carrot or stick against countries that repress their people or pose a threat to the national security of this country. It can also be an inducement to change national behavior.
You say that a good idea produces nothing,
Can you please cite anything I have posted that remotely indicates that assertion?
Your point about government bias is well taken. I don’t accept any form of crony capitalism. The General Welfare is exactly that - general. The minute government is aware of who will benefit from a law is the moment corruption begins. Government managed economies, like Chinas, are no good.
The US economy is becoming increasingly a managed economy as government controls more and more of the resources. Obamacare is just the latest manifestation, i.e., a takeover of one-sixth of the economy.