Posted on 06/16/2010 9:30:06 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
Is it time to abandon "free trade" as a pillar of conservativism?
What has "free trade" actually done that is positive for America?
Certainly "free trade" has been very very good for Communist China. But wasn't the idea that trade would somehow magically make China a democracy?
A really big Taiwan?
That's been an epic fail.
Not sure, when exactly advancing the interests of history's single largest communist state, was a conservative idea.
Almost as bad, it's destroying the GOP.
Workers who not so long ago, would have proudly waved flags at a Ronald Reagan speech. Who believe in things like church, and RKBA. Who proudly display an America flag on Independence Day. Who even oppose such things as abortion, and gay marriage.
Blue collar, working middle class Americans.
Now wear red or yellow tshirts saying "SEIU", because their factory jobs were eliminated - and now they're underemployed, angry and looking for political retribution.
"Free trade" is creating exactly the political situation in America, which will bring marxism!
We need to be the ones, out front loudly and without hesitation, advocating for AMERICAN jobs.
Americans, after all, vote.
"Free trade" has failed.
The sooner the GOP recognizes that, and drops our wrong-headed opposition to working Americans.
The sooner the GOP will be resurgent.
And the sooner, America will be resurgent.
Thanks for reading this rant.
Feel free to disagree, but let's discuss this please.
Clearly the current situation isn't working.
“Repeal” kenyancare.
How can we compete fairly with countries whose governments subsidize their industries and pay their workers $.25 an hour and probably don’t have to pay workers comp., FICA, etc.
So-called “free trade” has never been a “pillar of conservatism.”
When you say “free trade”, what do you mean exactly? What exactly do you think should be different?
It's a great example of "In theory, theory works in practice, in practice, it doesn't.
No, the Tea Party (as they would know if they ASKED instead of continually guessing or projecting their bias) is about one thing: SMALLER GOVERNMENT SPENDING LESS MONEY AND GETTING THE HELL OUT OF OUR LIVES (Ok maybe thats 2 or three things)
Baloney. Free trade was what GOT us here. Without free trade, there would have been no post-WW II economic miracle. The end of free trade helped Hitler gain power. Try again.
No, your right. Free trade doesn’t work if the govt and the unions do nothing but jack up the costs of doing business. We can compete, we just took ourselves out of the competition from Day 1.
The other part is the bean counter problem. They don’t look at the whole picture. By the time you consider the percentage defective goods that are produced overseas and the rework necessary to do them right, we are in fact competitive. One of the guys who ran in our district’s Congressional primary went to his buyer and showed him the numbers. That company now buys from his factory here in America now.
I'm not very optimistic -- because I think this country is in terrible trouble -- but if I allow myself an optimistic moment, I think that Obama may be such a disaster that many voters will decide that the less government tries to do, the better.
Not a chance of “repealing” “free trade” as long as the “GOP” has Bushes and/or Bush types running it. They(The Bushes) are Internationalist to the core and are NOT loyal to much of the US Constitution.
Do you mean free trade in a theoretical sense of open markets or do you mean free trade of the failed practice that uses the term, yet isn’t truly free as domestic companies are strangled by regulations and taxes that foreign companies don’t have?
Unfortunately, when many on the right talk about stopping free trade, they speak in terms of ‘leveling the playing field’ by imposing taxes and tariffs on imported goods (IE the Pat Buchanan mold). A Conservative approach would not be to tariff imports but to reduce the taxes and regulations on domestic companies so they can compete.
You are 100% correct- TRUE free trade would be the best ‘one world’ers could achieve- but they dont see it - they think it is one world government control of every contry
True free trade would mean companies survive or fail on their own without government subsidies or forced labor for $0.25 an hour
One country with endless labour law restrictions and unions and taxes out the wazoo cannot compete with that for a simple reason these morons cant seem to understand-
If someone is willing to do your job for less money then your job is already lost and government intervention will only make things worse.
If that happens just wait for the verbal attacks by the Left who will say that Americans insist on domination through exceptionalism and that it’s not fair to do so. They turn say Americanism is a supremacist idea.
The TEA party message of “Smaller Government” is closer to the idea of conservatism AND seems to be working.
‘America-first’ might ba “a” message, but it is not “the” message.
Thanks for asking - that’s a pretty important question.
True free trade, would be a good thing. Certainly free trade should be practiced - ruthlessly even - within our national border.
Let all Americans compete fair and square, and let the best claim the biggest rewards.
But what we have now, is a wholesale selling of our NATION.
By a few. Costing all of us, our future.
There is nothing “free” about the global trade system. It is rigged entirely, from every direction, against America.
All our so called partners, are protectionist.
Many blatantly racist, in national policy.
Yet we go along, sending our technology, jobs, factories and knowledge.
To people planning our demise.
We need to drop the pretense, and adopt reciprocal trade.
Without apology. And without compromise.
Want to sell stuff in America?
Then buy stuff from us.
Buy 50 million as a nation from the USA?
OK you can sell 50 million US dollar equivalents of zloties, or whatever currency, here.
Buy 10 million more, sell 10 million more.
We need to stop this process of giving away everything valuable which America has built over our history, before we cannot anymore.
Before there is nothing valuable left.
That point, is very rapidly approaching.
If we wait until we truly have no more jobs, no more money and no more factories.
We’re well and truly finished as a nation.
It will at that point, be too late for us all.
And frankly, too late for the world.
That light is in fact, an approaching train.
/follow-on rant :)
I agree. We need to do away with free trade and outsourcing.
My husband has to start traveling to Taiwan next week. His company is trying to do more work there. They already do a lot of manufacturing in China.
They want my husband to start working in Taiwan for 4 months out of the year. That’s really hard to do when you have a family (3 kids - 1 with special needs). It’s not like he can easily go to some other job either because there aren’t many jobs to be had right now.
I’m afraid this is only the beginning, and they’ll want him to move over there.
Where are our children going to work? Do the company executives even care about their own children?
Hey.
I’m all for American supremacy.
Woo-hoo!! I’m an American supremacist! No more hypens!
Seems sort of subversive, to say it. :)
Our system worked well before the substitution of income tax and unlimited government growth for tariffs. Before the income tax, my understanding is that tariffs funded most of the Federal Government.
There’s no way we can compete with foreign workers because they are not paid well. My husband has been to his company’s manufacturing plant in China.
The workers are all mostly female and young (20’s). Their hands are small enough to do intricate work. They live at the plant in like dorms, and work something like 12 hour days, 50 weeks a year (maybe more), and 6 days a week. It may be even worse than that. They don’t live with their families, and they have no lives. They also don’t get paid much.
Why would our country want to compete with that????? They treat their workers like dirt.
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