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This is going to be hard to say.

I understand your apprehension, but I guess my ancestors were born of pretty strong stuff. I hope to live up to their standards.

I am an American Male, with roots that trace prior to the revolution. My ancestors were proudly independent, and would laugh at, and shun, government intervention, to protect their job.

They knew that life is hard, and not fair. Today it is easy, yet still people whine about "fairness." Ask your grandfather, or if he is not alive, ask for advice. What would he say about "fair trade?" Or protectionism?

What would he say to you?

I know what my grandfather's would say. They would tell me to stop complaining, and start learning.

Then again, my bloodline is through Monroe. Hence the FR name.

They knew that life is hard, and not fair. Today it is easy, yet still people whine about "fairness." Ask your grandfather, or if he is not alive, ask for advice. What would he say about "fair trade?" Or protectionism?

Well, being as the Founding Fathers considered tariffs (protectionism) the only legitimate federal taxing authority, and being as George Washington refused to wear a coat cut of British cloth to his inauguration and signed the Tariff Act of 1789, and being as GW also said "A free people…should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent on others", and being as Alexander Hamilton wrote in his 1791 report as Treasury Secretary, "Every nation ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply."....

.....well, I imagine they'd be pretty sanguine with the concept of erecting tariffs right now. :o)

Ask your grandfather, or if he is not alive, ask for advice. What would he say about "fair trade?" Or protectionism?

Given it is 2003 Most gradfathers would have said of course we need tariffs. The first protective tariff law wa spassed inb 1789 as teh second act of the first Congress. Thomas Jefferson was proud that tariffs balanced his budget and supported tariffs that encvouage the developmentof industry. A point a got from free Trade advocate who was actually knowledgeable about history is that in 1789 wages in England were higher than in the USA. A scant thirty years later Wages in teh USA were higher than in England. His history was just a little flawed because he was thinking there were no protective tariffs in place.

I understand your apprehension, but I guess my ancestors were born of pretty strong stuff. I hope to live up to their standards.

So were mine ---- and I actually think I'll end up okay --- I've got two jobs now and taking classes, I've learned Spanish, and all the rest ---- I'm ready, you might be. But it's not really about just you and me ---- it's what is happening to the majority of Americans, including the lower skilled Americans who will never work again because millions of factory jobs and garment worker jobs are gone forever. And American programmers who will quickly slip backward in their skills if having to clean carpets for a living instead of programming. It matters what happens to the most Americans --- I think the Founding Fathers realized that. Most of them could have opted for the aristocracy and gotten themselves into that class easily enough ---- but they had a greater vision.

Then again, my bloodline is through Monroe. Hence the FR name.

Look at countries like Mexico ---- 10% of those people are doing very very well ---exceedingly well in fact. But they have a third world country where 80% of the people live in poverty. The other 10% are doing so-so. We had a country where almost everyone was doing quite well --- that was what the Founding Fathers wanted.