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.
However, your example proves my point. We are insulating these folks from the consequences of change. Do you really think that all 14,000 of these fine folks would roll into a ball and die if they were not being being propped up by a handout that insulates them from change?
Obviously change is painful, and no one likes to see people suffer. But it is time for people to be responsible for their own lives. It is time to stop treating them like helpless children. It is amazing to see how people WILL live up or down to the expectations given them. If we expect nothing from people, we shouldn't be surprised when we get nothing back. Look at the welfare crowd in America today - I rest my case.
Regards,
Regards,
Pay commensurate with previous employment isn't how the market works. No one is entitled to a certain pay scale. Remuneration is determined by supply and demand. Why do people keep thinking that they can repeal the laws of nature?
Most would have to return to Mexico to follow their former jobs ---but that's another example how unfree and one-way all this is. In spite of massive immigration to the US, Americans (citizens and residents)can't move to Mexico or India or China even if they wanted to work. Low skilled jobs are being sent out of the USA at a higher rate but low-skilled workers are moving in at just as high or higher rates. It doesn't make sense.
They won't suffer. They're being handed their free health care, WIC stamps, food stamps, HUD housing and NAFTA displaced worker handouts. They won't be leaving to work in maquilas in Mexico, but Mexico wouldn't let them anyhow. Some "free" trade.
I can blame minimum wage for it even more.
Your statement was: "The excesses of unbridled, laissez-faire Capitalism can be just as oppressive of individual freedom and opportunity as authoritarian Communism."
Fascism isn't Laissez Faire Capitalism. Try again.
Calm down,,,, count to ten,,,, and then go suck on the exhaust pipe of a sixteen wheeler.
Moron
"No one has yet found a way to repeal the law of supply and demand." -Ronald Reagan, Address as Governor of California, 1972
This fact doesn't stop the socialists, or the Freepers against freedom from trying...
"Freepers against freedom" is a large and growing group here. They all want to pay lip service to it, but are repulsed by the idea that in order to be free, you must allow others to be free.
A larger group than that is the "Republicans before Americans" group, (RBAs) who applaud anything as long as the person behind it has an (R) behind their name. The precise things that they excoriated Clinton for are rountinely applauded when done by Bush.
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