Oh my, I need help with this one...

[devilgrrl]

The following is a comment left on blog regarding a congressional candidate in Western New York. It set off my BS detector... Anyone got a good retort?

Thanks in advance.


by Ike - June 26th, 2007

“no other defense of weakening economic opportunity for employed working class Americans”

Ah yes, we should all pay twice as much for the same product because it was made in america

free trade works, and it’s not going anywhere. If anything, the US is overly protectionist as it is, particularly with regards to agricultural subsidies. Also we’d be alot better off from a manufacturing perspective if china would let the yuan float, but now that its in front of the WTO, I suspect that will happen sooner than later.

Just because this area has lost alot of manufacturing jobs doesn’t mean free trade doesn’t work…it’s asinine

[devilgrrl]

1. self-delete

...

[Orrex]

4. In that case, self-delete here, too

:hi:

[devilgrrl]

7. :-)

:pals:

[Orrex]

2. Free trade works well for everyone on paper

But then so does a totalitarian dictatorship.

One problem is that there has never been anything like a truly free market, despite the fevered imaginings of Libertarians. The best we can say is that in some circumstances some aspects of the economy work somewhat better with minimal regulation.

But in practice, reduced regulation means a blank check for abuse, corruption, and all sorts of unsavory practices. The theory suggests that these would self-correct, but that's wishful thinking at best, and a lot of people would be totally screwed in the meantime.

For the most part, only two types of people advocate a wholly free market: wealthy people who recognize that they would see a huge financial benefit from it; and not-quite-as-wealthy people who imagine that they'd become wealthy under it.

[thoughtanarchist]

3. real quick...

"Ah yes, we should all pay twice as much for the same product because it was made in america"


Save much on your $120.00 Nike's since they started using slave labor? It's roughly the same across all other industries. They charge the most you will possibly pay, regardless of the source.

Meanwhile, wages stagnate while inflation soars. This is not a coincidence.

Losing manufacturing jobs is a national security risk. We currently import armored vehicles from South Africa to send to Iraq. We can no longer depend on ourselves for our national security infrastructure. That is asinine.

When / if china allows the yuan to adjust is irrelevant. We still have a labor force that has been forced into unfair competition with the poorest, cheapest labor on the planet.

And it is not just manufacturing anymore.

[Ron Green]

5. The bigger issue, above and beyond free trade, is

to disconnect human happiness from economic growth. When we're able to elect leaders who can talk this sort of talk, we're on the way to saving ourselves.

[asjr]

6. Free trade isn't really "free."

The loss of manufacturing jobs proves that it is not free. Is there anything left that America manufactures? How many firms are moving to Mexico? Is there anything in customer service that has not been moved to India? I believe in everyone being able to make a buck or two, but when people in our country are left without the means to live it is frightening. We are on the fast road to becoming a third world country.