America has had a quarter-century experiment with “free trade” agreements.
The jury is in. At least with the voters.
They suck.
Larry Elder is a good guy but he doesn’t get it either.. we always go into these trade negotiations ready to give away the farm and the other side always knows it
Not that anyone cares anymore, but Obama signed the TPP yesterday.
Thanks to all who contributed to that.
At the Bildeberg meeting @ Baden-Baden, Germany in 1991 David Rockefeller walked up to Bill Clinton and asked him what he thought about NAFTA. Clinton replied, “If it’s important to you, Mr Rockefeller, it’s important to me.” Rockefeller replied, “Thank you, Mr President.”
Wow! A Trump hit piece? Here on Free Republic!
Coming Up:
TRUMP KICKS PUPPY. REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE.
TRUMP NEEDS HELP GETTING DRESSED IN THE MORNING
POLLS PROVE VOTERS FAVOR CANDIDATES WITH FOUR LETTERS IN THEIR NAME
CRUZ: THIS IS A ONE MAN RACE AND I’M THE ONE
Oh, wait... that last one is real...
This has to end and Trump's the only guy in the race with the balls to talk about it.
Once Trump gets Mexico to pay for the wall everything will be Even Steven! /s
IBTSHL
(In Before the Smoot-Hawley Lie )
Sounds like a form of NIMBY argument - we really need to do something to level the playing field for Americans, but anything we do will cause some short to mid-term discomfort for many so we maybe ought to not do anything because we’re comfortable with what we complain about daily....
....because I really, really want the globalist defense of what they’ve done to the US economy
I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump if nominated called for a VAT tax.
That is often not the case.
Largely forgotten immediate aftermath. Destroy the Mexican agricultural economy to get that cheap labor pool in place.
“If Trump were talking about the excessive taxes or regulations that induce American companies to leave the U.S. or to put factories in foreign countries, that would be one thing.”
Well, he does.
Or we put a tariff on EVERYBODY and guess what? American companies get ramped up with robotic assembly lines which give jobs to a few thousand robot repairmen, period, end of story.
After all the damage of a trade war.
Freepers who clearly understand that you can't just pay burger flippers $15 an hour don't seem to get it that the days of millions of American men standing on the line, bolting together washing machines, or snapping tubes into TV chassis, are over. Over.
We need to figure out how to make an economy work under that reality.
So, we are schooled in free trade by a blogger and talk show host?
“But Trump actually proposes punishing the American consumer. As economist Milton Friedman says, protectionism discriminates against low prices.”
I have had a habit for a long time of looking to see where something is made before I buy it.
The other day I was in Lowes and bought a wrench that I thought I would need. Its label signified an American company, said it was a hundred year old company.
The wrench was of good quality because it was an American design. It was manufactured in China. Most of the things we buy, consumer goods, are made in China. These items are built by low wage workers but, on the whole, the savings are not passed on to the consumer.
The only thing I have noticed that is are air conditioners, for some reason.
But if the savings really were passed along, what good does it do to have cheaper goods if you have no job and no money to buy them with?
The United States became an economic powerhouse and it was not by using the latest version of “free trade”.
I heard an old economist say many years ago, when you buy a product made overseas, the money and the job go overseas.
Try as they might, proponents of “free trade” can not over rule that economic law.
Tariffs worked well for our country for 180 years.
Our founding fathers viewed tariffs as a tax on foreigners wanting to sell into our markets.
And while a case can be made for trade via comparative advantatge, no case can be made for trade deals where countries like China sell to us, but buy little in return except for our equities and debt.