Posted on 11/25/2002 8:15:37 AM PST by SAMWolf
I hope they don't kick me out of the Republican Party for this.
But free trade is a bad idea.
For years it hasn't set right with me, and I've tried to figure out why. And now I know. It's because it violates a simple principle of life.
And that is self-reliance.
International free trade, while certainly necessary and useful to an extent, can easily be overemphasized to such a degree that it jeopardizes a country's economic self-interest and national security.
The United States is a good example.
But first, let's look at Mexico.
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, all Mexican protections against American or Canadian agricultural imports are about to disappear. That means cheaper Canadian and American farm products are going to flood Mexico.
And Mexican farms are going to close down. The impact on Mexican agriculture is going to be immense.
Which means Mexico is going to be less capable of supplying its own needs. And it means a ton of farm workers are going to be out of work and headed north. And that's not good for anybody.
Just like it's no good that the United States has a dramatic trade deficit, that it buys far more from overseas than it sells. And that there are entire sections of the American economy which are dependent on foreign goods. For whole product lines, there simply are no American manufacturers anymore. From electronic goods to clothing to steel, we don't make things anymore.
And American corporations are closing domestic factories to shift manufacturing overseas.
All of which fits perfectly into the world of free trade.
And all of which screws us royally.
Because independence is good and interdependence is bad. Because interdependence is the same as reliance and that is the opposite of self-reliance.
And history teaches that -- without exception -- prosperity and security require national self-reliance. Americans should eat American agricultural products and use American manufactured products and channel their income back into the economy that produced it -- the American economy. When a nation becomes reliant on foreign products -- as the United States clearly is -- its comfort and peace are held hostage by the producers of those foreign products.
If a nation cannot produce what it needs -- as the United States now cannot -- it is in a precarious position that weakens and enslaves it.
We will be weakened as we exchange our prosperity -- hard currency -- for foreign products, and we will be enslaved as our national policy inevitably must be tailored to preserve our access to foreign goods. These are truths which have been understood and implemented around the world for centuries. To abandon them now is to abandon national self-interest and to doom the United States to premature but certain decline.
And it is to bring the same fate to many nations of the world.
In developing countries, lingering poverty and delayed development are tied directly to a failure to be nationally self-reliant. When nations feed themselves, they do not starve. When they manufacture their own goods, they don't go without.
When they understand that their consumer dollars must be recycled into their own economies, they do not long linger in recession or unemployment.
Free trade serves a very few at the top of international corporations, but it does not serve the average American. Rather, it takes away his job and his nation's strength.
Certainly, the flow of goods and produce around the globe is needful and beneficial, but so is protection, and buttering your own bread first. The sense of national economic identity must not be lost, and neither should the commitment to protecting American prosperity -- even at the cost of limiting free trade.
Our first obligation is to feed, house, clothe and prosper American families. Every thing else comes second. That must be our attitude. Just as Mexico and every other nation must have the same attitude about its people and its economy.
Independence is good, interdependence is bad.
Self-reliance is the key to prosperity -- for individuals and nations.
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From a survey of reality.
Corporate cronyism. It flourished under The Rapist, but as you note has always worked itself out in tax and regulatory policy. The need for a broad coalition to explicity identify and combat this trend is dire. It should be lead by Republicans, who despite countervailing stereotypes, and an absolute abundance of sins on their own part, have long stood, especially by comparison to the 'Rats, for across the board pro-business policies, as opposed to those that favor entrenched "industry leaders".
Those damn foreigners!! We don't want em here, and we don't want to do business with them in their own countries either!!
Our eager and qualified Americans don't seem eager enough to work that they accept the wages offered. You keep ignoring that.
BTW, I'll promise to genuflect to your superior knowledge if you speak english and tell me what H1B means. I mean I feel so small because I'm not privy to your little code.
The excesses of unbridled, [freedom of individuals to trade the product of their labors as they see fit] can be just as oppressive of individual freedom and opportunity as authoritarian Communism.
Perhaps you can explain/justify your statement. It seems you know a lot of things that just aren't so...
Oh, so you made it up. It looks like it. It is however incorrect, as is most of what you have said.
Like subsidies and other corporate welfare?
Pro business in that way is anti-freemarket and anti-freedom.
Needs to be done? According to whom? The pilotburo? 'The Economy' is simply the effort of every individual to satisfy his wants and needs. History has demonstrated the most efficient way this can take place is under freedom, where one's right to liberty and property are undisturbed. It 'sustains' itself every time someone is dissatisfied with their current conditions enough to act.
It was already explained quite adequately.
That's what necessitated your insertion of your own wording
to disingenuously set-up a straw-man to attack.
Bingo! Fix your government and you fix a large part of the problem.
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No, I did't jest sit down and make it up, spoiled idiot child. I consulted economic law, mathematical law, and history texts. As far as being incorrect, you should live so long.
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Right. Including trade with communist/socialist nations using slave labor. Wow, are you a winner. Restate the statement under freedom, where one's right to liberty and property are undisturbed and state it more accurately as, " under MY freedom, where MY right to liberty and property are undisturbed AND SCREW EVERYBODY ELSE's.
Those two words should never be listed as if they were even closely equivilent.
But as long as you list God rightfully as your first allegience, you might ask yourself if he makes distinctions on how we treat our fellow man. Does he ask us to base it on what side of the geographical line someone lives on?
Better to have those "slaves" starve to death. It's for their own good you know.
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