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Today's Free Trade is not about the Free Market
JEFFHEAD.COM ^ | 08/01/2003 | Jeff Head

Posted on 08/01/2003 2:05:33 PM PDT by Jeff Head

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To: HighRoadToChina
They pulled my post because Poohbah made a stink because I said "Zionist" which him and Jim Robinson turned into "Jewish conspiracy".

I don't and never have hated Jewish people as some idiot who put a swasticker in a reply to me , wants to make it look.

I'm talking from a purely historical point of view.

There are many Jews who dislike the Zionist tactics of Israel.

But scream anti-Semite and everybody jumps , especially the Free Republic censor hounds.

unFree Republic , just like the one we live in.

261 posted on 08/02/2003 5:24:47 AM PDT by Eustace
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To: Texas_Dawg
I tend to surround myself with people that work hard.

I doubt anyone would even get close to you, let alone 'surround' you. :-)

262 posted on 08/02/2003 5:57:50 AM PDT by Paul Ross (A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one!-A. Hamilton)
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To: Quix
See my post 248...and browse my JeffHead.com site, particularly the Patriotism Link and the "Give me Liberty or Give Me Death" link there. That last site has been up for 6-7 years.
263 posted on 08/02/2003 6:27:38 AM PDT by Jeff Head
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To: DugwayDuke; meadsjn; Travis McGee; Dukie; joanie-f; Quix
A true Free Trade agreement would actually be a Free Market Agreement and would impose Tariff's of varying degrees on any nation that did not conform to standards of government and individual liberty that mirrored our own as an incentive for them to have full membership and entry into the free market. This would include a very low level of government interference, control and regulation in the market...on both sides of the equation (ie. ours needs to be vastly reduced).

Such policy would protect the Free Market and keep it from being corrupted by nations wholly incompatable with the free market that took advantage of it without providing any benefit off freedom to their people (which would provide us with the benefit of a compatible market to trade in).

If a nation did conform, and if they practiced proven republican prinicples of government that allowed their people true liberty based on fundamental moral principle, then their access to our markets and our access to their markets would be open and principally subject to the true free market control.

But that access would have to work both ways, and the people there would have to truly be free to excel, to innovate and to raise themselves up in their own society...purchasing whatever our economy could provide for them while we did likewise.

IMHO, that's free trade as it should be, and it means free market trade between FREE nations...which enhances, grows and strengthens the free market, instead of watering it down, diluting and corrupting it which is what we are presently doing.

Such an agreement would not be offerred at all to nations who were the anti-thesis of those Republican principles.

264 posted on 08/02/2003 6:48:50 AM PDT by Jeff Head
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To: snopercod
snopercod wrote:

Hey, I just found someone else who wants to "reign in" capitalism. Like you, she objects to: Who was it? Hillary Clinton.

********************************************

How dare you compare me to that corrupt whore? And you know nothing about me.

I believe in capitalism, but in the same way that Teddy Roosevelt did. I HATE Robber Barons and Slave Labour, and I DO think we need labor laws in this country, else we WOULD be running sweatshops full of children just like we did before the turn of the century.

Capitalism is great, if practiced with morality.

Unfortunatly, the moral fiber of this country has been frayed for generations.

Since you like ugly comparisons and name-calling, I will not address you further on this subject.

Tia

265 posted on 08/02/2003 7:42:33 AM PDT by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
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To: Buckwheats
Buckwheats wrote:

Do you have a sister?

P.S. I would only nuke someone who repeatedly asks stupid questions.

************************************

I try hard not to get into pissing contests on FR.

I have two sisters. I am not on speaking terms with either.

The one is a spoiled liberal who has had everything handed to her because she was the baby . She thinks Hillary Clinton and the UN are a good idea, hates the military and likes socialism.

She Is very pretty though, far more so than I ever was. she is a figure-skater.

The other is just plain crazy, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who likes drugs and guns and last I checked was under arrest for having punched out a cop.

You want nothing to do with my immediate family .

*I* am the Black Sheep of the family, pro-military and for school-vouchers. The last big argument I had with my father ( a proud member of the NEA and the National Federation of Teachers) was over Gulf War I and his later fascination with Bill Clinton.

I have since disowned them.

Tia

266 posted on 08/02/2003 7:54:12 AM PDT by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
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To: tiamat
Capitalism is a word that can mean so many things. Just a little too general for me because anyone, regardless of motive, who seeks, trades in, gathers, spends or deals in it is a capitalist.

I prefer to use the term free enterprize and free market and couple them with morality. Because when you apply free...as in individual liberty and accountability...it necessitates morality. That's what is so galling and insidious about the use of the term free trade ... it is very misleading and disenginuous IMHO, meant to lull people into an acceptance of something that has nothing to do with true freedom.

Just like our Constitutional Republic MUST be coupled with morality in order for it to work for the same reasons.

Best Fregards...and per your profile, copngrats on your 21st anniversary this year. My lovely wife and I celebrated our 25th in April.

267 posted on 08/02/2003 8:07:33 AM PDT by Jeff Head
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To: HighRoadToChina
So, what I am trying to say is that "Free Trade" is definitely NOT about "free" trade but is about the control of markets in the guise of "Free Trade", especially the ownership of controlled markets like in Nazi China where one needs only to negotiate with the dictators to win wholesale markets and contracts for cheap labor

Bingo!

268 posted on 08/02/2003 8:11:39 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: snopercod
The first 200 years of this nation, we had some form or other of protective tariffs. Republicans in particular have historically been protective of American trade and jobs. Here are some excerpts from the 1892, 1904, 1964 & 1968 Republican Platform.

1892:
We reaffirm the American doctrine of protection. We call attention to its growth abroad. We maintain that the prosperous condition of our country is largely due to the wise revenue legislation of the Republican congress.

We believe that all articles which cannot be produced in the United States, except luxuries, should be admitted free of duty, and that on all imports coming into competition with the products of American labor, there should be levied duties equal to the difference between wages abroad and at home. We assert that the prices of manufactured articles of general consumption have been reduced under the operations of the tariff act of 1890.

We denounce the efforts of the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives to destroy our tariff laws by piecemeal, as manifested by their attacks upon wool, lead and lead ores, the chief products of a number of States, and we ask the people for their judgment thereon.

We point to the success of the Republican policy of reciprocity, under which our export trade has vastly increased and new and enlarged markets have been opened for the products of our farms and workshops. We remind the people of the bitter opposition of the Democratic party to this practical business measure, and claim that, executed by a Republican administration, our present laws will eventually give us control of the trade of the world.

1904:
Protection, which guards and develops our industries, is a cardinal policy of the Republican party. The measure of protection should always at least equal the difference in the cost of production at home and abroad. We insist upon the maintenance of the principle of protection, and therefore rates of duty should be readjusted only when conditions have so changed that the public interest demands their alteration, but this work cannot safely be committed to any other hands than those of the Republican party. To intrust it to the Democratic party is to invite disaster. Whether, as in 1892, the Democratic party declares the protective tariff unconstitutional, or whether it demands tariff reform or tariff revision, its real object is always the destruction of the protective system. However specious the name, the purpose is ever the same. A Democratic tariff has always been followed by business adversity: a Republican tariff by business prosperity. To a Republican Congress and a Republican President this great question can be safely intrusted. When the only free trade country among the great nations agitates a return to protection, the chief protective country should not falter in maintaining it.

1964
4. We hold that trade with Communist countries should not be directed toward the enhancement of their power and influence but could only be justified if it would serve to diminish their power.
5. We are opposed to the recognition of Red China. We oppose its admission into the United Nations. We steadfastly support free China.

1968
maintain a favorable balance of trade and balance of payments
...
It remains the policy of the Republican Party to work toward freer trade among all nations of the free world. But artificial obstacles to such trade are a serious concern. We promise hard-headed bargaining to lower the non-tariff barriers against American exports and to develop a code of fair competition, including international fair labor standards, between the United States and comparable principal trading partners.

A sudden influx of imports can endanger many industries. These problems, differing in each industry, must be considered case by case. Our guideline will be fairness for both producers and workers, without foreclosing imports.

Thousands of jobs have been lost to foreign producers because of discriminatory and unfair trade practices.

The State Department must give closest attention to the development of agreements with exporting nations to bring about fair competition. Imports should not be permitted to capture excessive portions of the American market but should, through international agreements, be able to participate in the growth of consumption.

Should such efforts fail, specific countermeasures will have to be applied until fair competition is re-established. Tax reforms will also be required to preserve the competitiveness of American goods.

The basis for determining the value of imports and exports must be modified to reflect true dollar value.
269 posted on 08/02/2003 8:20:18 AM PDT by LibertyAndJusticeForAll
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To: Poohbah
You wish to institute five-year economic plans, Comrade?

Business plans are usually 5 yr plans.

How far out is the Bush "economic plan"...Komrade?

270 posted on 08/02/2003 8:24:11 AM PDT by lewislynn
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To: Jeff Head
Jeff Head wrote:

Capitalism is a word that can mean so many things. Just a little too general for me because anyone, regardless of motive, who seeks, trades in, gathers, spends or deals in it is a capitalist.

*************************************************

Jeff,

That is interesting, and thank you!

Under that defination of capitalism, I am definately a capitalist. I do a lot on the Net and with Ebay and I once paid for most of a trip to Disney by brokering Beanie Babies. During the 90's, I got into the stock-market and turned the left-over Beanie money into enough to build a sun-room and put a deck on the back of the house.

Thank God I got out in time too! LOL!

I guess what I object to about how people do business these days is that personal responsibility and accountability have gone by the wayside, so some business and people gouge.

I am no fan of unions and consider them a Neccessary Evil.

I was completly disgusted at 9-11, where CEOs of airlines, simultanoiusly laid people off, begged the Fed for yet more money
( yet some of them were going bank-rupt years before 9-11 due to corruption or mis-management) and yet many of these same CEOs got HUGE year-end bonuses.

That is just not right, and it is the sort of behavior that spawned unions in the first place.

With power and position goes responsibility and that means looking out for your workers ( within reason) and showing them the same loyalty you expect from them.

Too few business do that . I know WAY more than I ought to about GM and it's machinations. And I won't even begin with WorldCom! LOL!

I like what you write!

And Happy Anniversary to you and your lady, too!

FReegards!

Tia

271 posted on 08/02/2003 8:29:33 AM PDT by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
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To: Jeff Head
Not only are "competencies" being outsourced. So far, there are financial and legal controls over business, but these, too, seem to be getting pushed out of the hands of American voters, q.v., international tribunals, the UN, etc.

As you indicate, there are clever shibboleths often thrown up to stymie reasoned debate (diversity and compassion spring to mind).
272 posted on 08/02/2003 8:30:02 AM PDT by P.O.E.
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To: LibertyAndJusticeForAll
Fascinating. May I ask where you found all that?
273 posted on 08/02/2003 8:39:07 AM PDT by snopercod
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To: tiamat
How dare you compare me to that corrupt whore?

I did no such thing. I compared what you wrote about capitalism to what hillary clinton wrote about capitalism and noted the similarities.

If you insist upon taking that observation personally, so be it.

274 posted on 08/02/2003 8:45:52 AM PDT by snopercod
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To: HighRoadToChina
Thanks for the ping.
275 posted on 08/02/2003 8:52:16 AM PDT by tallhappy
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To: snopercod
Here are the links which I found by googling:

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platindex=R1892
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platindex=R1904
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platindex=R1964
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platindex=R1968
276 posted on 08/02/2003 8:52:26 AM PDT by LibertyAndJusticeForAll
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To: tiamat
Happy Anniversary to you and your lady

Thank you. Five kids and two grandkids later (a third is being born later today and we are about ready to head to the hospital), we look back and wonder at how the time has passed.

...it has passed, as it were, a dream to us.

But despite the bumps along the way, and the times of sorrow...the dream has been a good one, a true all-American one. I am focused and committed on making sure it stays that way for my kids and grandkids.

Fregards.

277 posted on 08/02/2003 9:25:44 AM PDT by Jeff Head
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To: LibertyAndJusticeForAll; Lazamataz
Thanks. In return, I just keyed this in:
”The floor of misinformation, misrepresentation, distortion, and outright falsehood about capitalism is such that the young people of today have no ided (and virtually no way of discovering any idea) of its actual nature. While archeologists are rummaging throught te ruins of millennia for scraps of pottery and bits of bones, from which to reconstruct some information about prehistorical existence – the events of less than a century ago are hidden under a mound more impenetrable than the geological debris of winds, floods, and earthquakes: a mound of silence.”
--Ayn Rand, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, 1966

”The nineteenth century was the ultimate product and expression of the intellectual trend of the Renaissance and the Age of Reason, which means: of a predominantly Aristotelian philosophy. And for the first time in history, it created a new economic system, the necessary corollary of political freedom, a system of free trade on a free market: capitalism.

No, it was not a full, perfect, unregulated, totally laissez-faire capitalism - as it should have been. Various degrees of government interference and control still remained, even in America – and this is what led to the eventual destruction of capitalism But the extent to which certain countries were free was the exact extent of their economic progress. America, the freest, achieved the most.

”Never mind the low wages and the harsh living conditions of the early years of capitalism. They were all that the national economies of the time could afford. Capitalism did not create poverty – it inherited it. Compared to the centuries of precapitalist starvation, the living conditions of the poor in the early years of capitalism were the first chance the poor had ever had to survive. As proof – the enormous growth of the European population during the nineteenth century, a growth of over 300 percent, as compared to the previous growth of something like 3 percent per century.

--Ayn Rand, Faith and Force: The destroyers of the Modern World, 1982
Observe the paradoxes built up about capitalism. It has been called a system of selfishness – yet it is the only system that drew men to unite on a large scale into great countries, and peacefully to cooperate across national boundaries, while all the collectivist, internationalist, One-World systems are splitting the world into Balkanized tribes.

Capitalism has been called a system of greed – yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.

Capitalism has been called nationalistic – yet it is the only system that banished ethnicity, and made it possible, in the United States, for men of various, formerly antagonistic nationalities to live together in peace.

Capitalism has been called cruel – yet it brought such hope, progress and general good will that the young people of today, who have not seen it, find it hard to believe.

As to pride, dignity, self-confidence, self-esteem – these are characteristics that mark a man for martyrdom in a tribal society and under any social system except capitalism.

--Ayn Rand, Global Balkanization
(Laz: Did you think I was joking about Russia being more capitalist these days than America? I wasn't.)
278 posted on 08/02/2003 9:26:03 AM PDT by snopercod
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To: tiamat
Tia,

Whoa, sorry I asked (just kidding). You're apparently the 'Sane Sheep' of the flock. Congratulations on your good fortune.
279 posted on 08/02/2003 9:26:04 AM PDT by Buckwheats
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To: Travis McGee; off-ramp; Jeff Head
Travis: "Unless your goal is to reduce your own nation to slave status."

off-ramp: "Excellent! Exactly my sentiments, except I would have used the term "Third World" instead of "slave." "

The dream of wannabe global governors -- those who have taken free-trade to the max and will not be satisfied until they can exploit and control the natural resources and labor pool (fondly referred to as 'human resources' even by our own gummint) of the world.

The only things holding up the globalists plan is the jealously-guarded claim to sovereignty, independence and self-determination by middle-class Americans, who, by the way, might be the only people on the planet who claim and practice 'inalienable rights.' Certainly the elitists don't -- nor the welfare/slave class.

But how long can the middle-class hold out when the would-be global governors are chewing around the edges, inflicting a pretty deep gash into middle-class wealth and limiting it by taxation? Wealth is not a relative thing, for it denotes personal independence and free-will. And having independence keeps real political power in the proper hands. In the hands of a free people.

Once America is turned into an 'inter-dependent' nation, the clean-up operation for the rest of the world will be a cake-walk. And the bottom tier of the elitists -- those who stand in the 'wings' and hold the coats of the rapists will be manning the largest bureaucracy ever to exist on Planet Earth. (There ya go, NGO's. Something you've always looked forward to.)

And who then will be concerned when everyone is laying back saying, 'I got pipe, I got hash, I got mat and 'mate.' What more could I ask for?'

It's a multi-front war against personal independence and the independence of any nation. The economic front seems to be on the front burner, right next to the 'moral/cultural' front which is about to boil over.

So there you have it. Everything is related and working in concert to reduce the world to rubble, as the elitists would have it, as long as they are on the top of the heap.

(Nuke China? Why even think about it? China has always 'nuked' its own.)

280 posted on 08/02/2003 9:31:35 AM PDT by Eastbound
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