Posted on 12/23/2024 5:08:09 AM PST by hardspunned
Ronald Reagan made one of his most famous economic quotes in a 1982 radio interview.
“Free trade serves the cause of economic progress, and it serves the cause of world peace.”
Free trade and peace seem to be two of the traits that the DNC and neocons hate the most. History has shown that free trade among nations is one of the best ways to create prosperity and that it is in all countries’ best interests to pursue free trade.
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I’m in favor of a blocked currency like India has.
The Russians selling oil to India can take their pick of Indian products and services.
The problem is it is one way free trade. Our goods are blocked or high taxed and theirs get in free or low tax.
BS
America still makes and sells all kinds of stuff all around the world. American salesmen knock on doors everywhere in the world to sell stuff you can’t even imagine exists.
Americans are the real, the actual global force transmitting our culture and values around the globe. Most importantly, the world runs currently on American software that homogenizes the business world enabling it to function smoothly.
We have delegated the manufacture of paint brushes and ball point pens and keyboards to others so we can concentrate on more profitable and technical matters.
Agreed.
If you believe in free trade, be careful with the definition. An American company paying its workers $25 an hour competing with a German company paying its workers $25 an hour … that’s free trade.
But that’s not what we have now. We have Chinese companies paying their workers $2 an hour competing with American companies paying their workers $25 an hour.
That’s not free trade. It’s China turning America into its economic colony.
You make a very good point. But we need those paint brush and ball point pen factories here in America - if for no other reason than unskilled people need the work.
As it is now, we have huge numbers of people on the dole, doing nothing. Many of them just don’t have the ability to be an engineer or a dentist. But they would thrive in a factory setting. Unfortunately, there are no factories. So they just sit around. And idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
Ah, but here’s the problem. If a $2 paint brush were made in America, it would cost $8. Inflation would explode. I don’t know the solution to that. Maybe there isn’t one.
If we impose the same tariffs, taxes and restrictions that foreign nations impose on us AND IN ADDITION impose on foreign nations the cost that U.S businesses and industry pays to the U.S. government, e.g., minimum wage, environmental costs, union requirements/costs, regulation costs - when these things are done, THEN we might have fair trade.
Until then, tariff foreign nations to compensate American and U.S businesses and industry for the inequities between us and our foreign competition.
Well, we tried that theory with China, and the reality is that some people can not get along no matter how hard they try. China is more than willing to steal the intellectual property of others, while satisfying labor needs through forced cheap labor. The only one that benefits from the “free trade” is China.
Again, I must remind folks here that companies do not do business to provide jobs. The only reason for the existence of any American business is to make a profit.
I know for a fact that the Italian made machines that manufactured thousands of paint brushes were shipped to China was because the Tennessee factory operating the machines could not sell the product an make a profit. The capital required to own the factory, support the administrative organization and labor force could be used elsewhere and earn a return.
Providing jobs for unskilled people is not a function of American free enterprise. Unskilled people must get off their lazy asses and develop salable skills
> Providing jobs for unskilled people is not a function of American free enterprise. <
I totally agree. So I would not advocate for American businesses to concern themselves with that matter. Their job is to focus on turning a profit.
But it is a concern of the government (and I hate to say that, as I’m a small-government guy).
In a way, it’s like the river pollution thing. Factories along rivers once dumped their waste right into the river. Why? It made the most sense economically.
So the government had to step in, and make things right.
I don’t see how a country can thrive when huge numbers of people cannot find decent work. And I don’t see an easy solution. Maybe Trump 2.0 can crack this nut. After all, he’s probably a little smarter than me. 🙂
Yep. Why that’s so hard for people like Rand Paul to understand, is beyond me. Libertarians are dangerously naive. Their simplistic solutions would be disastrous, if actually put into practice. A Rand or Ron Paul Presidency would be worse than Jimmy Carter’s. The world would become more dangerous, then they’d either double down and make things worse or they’d be forced to backtrack from their principles.
Isn’t Fair Trade better than Free Trade?
It’s not “free trade” to allow slave labor, child labor and sweat shop countries to undercut US corporations costs by orders of magnitude and dump their products here. US manufacturers were devastated by globalist “free traitors”. The manufacturing jobs in America were strip mined. The jobs went to China, Mexico and Indonesia. The profits went to DC and Hedge funds. The jobs here were gone.
Tariffs are the cure. Free trade was preferred by Marx himself. If they want free trade, fine. Full open access to US markets for any country that follows US safety, environmental and labor law AND does not impede US products coming to their country.
Arbitrage of labor costs is not free trade, it’sa race to the bottom and the end of our ability to manufacture here.
Rand Paul is the personification of dichotomy. So smart and so clueless.
Free trade like socialism doesn’t work in the real world. Free trade would work in a utopia but not with real people who look for every way to get an edge, to undercut, to manipulate the system.
That is why tariffs are a great solution. The carrot & the stick may get the US to a fair trade position with most countries. Trump is the man to get it done & to set up a protocol to keep our economy safe in future.
“It’s not “free trade” to allow slave labor, child labor and sweat shop countries to undercut US corporations costs by orders of magnitude and dump their products here. US manufacturers were devastated by globalist “free traitors”. The manufacturing jobs in America were strip mined. The jobs went to China, Mexico and Indonesia. The profits went to DC and Hedge funds. The jobs here were gone.
Tariffs are the cure. Free trade was preferred by Marx himself. If they want free trade, fine. Full open access to US markets for any country that follows US safety, environmental and labor law AND does not impede US products coming to their country.
Arbitrage of labor costs is not free trade, it’s a race to the bottom and the end of our ability to manufacture here.”
Two biggest mistakes of the last century in America were Welfare state and the people that allowed US industries to be undermined and destroyed by the aforementioned. We can’t play the game anymore, and Tariffs are needed to level the field. I 100% agree with your post.
Thanks, I was just behind you in typing. All excellent points.
You do realize we’re the #1 economy in the world and the #1 super power right? 😆
Free traders had a free hand since the early 90s. The turned red China into an aggressive well armed monster. Wars have exploded everywhere. And Sabrina has a rust belt of closed manufacturing companies.
They aren’t exactly doing nothing after the paint brush and pencil factories closed. Washington DC flooded those areas with OxyContin. It’s almost like a plan, isn’t it?
And also, it wasn’t just pencil and paint brush factories. It’s John Deere and Ford assembly lines. It was skilled workers making auto parts, decent furniture, textiles, boots and shoes and hundreds of other quality products. Walk through an estate sale or some suck and you’ll see those things from the 50s 60s on through the 80s.
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