[CowboyJay]

"It's based on static, zero-sum, thinking. Essentially, they assume there is a finite of wealth to go around.
Protectionists are bad at math."

No. We believe there is a finite amount of CAPITAL to go around.

China is Socialist.
China is Authoritarian.
China is Abortionist.
China is Atheist.
China would love to export these cultural virtues outside their own border.

They are the enemy. Aiding them is treason.

Free-traders may be OK at math, but they are apparently very VERY bad at reasoning.

[Toddsterpatriot]

No. We believe there is a finite amount of CAPITAL to go around.

Yes. And China is investing a large part of their capital in America.

They are the enemy. Aiding them is treason.

Someone who buys Chinese goods is a traitor? What about Mexican goods? Traitor too? What about Japanese goods? Traitor? British goods? Canadian goods?

Please, spell it out for everyone. Thanks.

[markedman]

"Free-traders may be OK at math, but they are apparently very VERY bad at reasoning."

Au contraire! Free-traders are neither good at math nor reasoning. In the economics lab, free trade makes perfect sense, in the real world it does not. Americans are rubes when it comes to negotiating free trade agreements with their far craftier counterparts.

Free trade, as it is called and practiced currently, is not free, which will become readily apparent once all of those "freely traded" dollars come back to purchase what is left of America and collect debts owed.

[hinckley buzzard]

We believe there is a finite amount of CAPITAL to go around.

This is probably a mistaken belief. I recall a "Business Week" article in the late seventies making the argument for this belief. The Reagan boom of the eighties began a few years later and the economy never suffered a "capital crunch" again. Consider the ramifications of basing a position on a false premise.