Why America and the world need free trade

The Prometheus Institute ^ | 8/2/2006 | M. Harrison

[tang0r]

Forget the politicking on the news about tariffs and subsidies. The true advantages of free trade, toward which small political steps as the Doha trade round are vital, are to the long-term financial and social benefit of America and the world. Were free trade effectively implemented, instead of being torpedoed by the demagogic posturing of reactionary Leftists, the progress and development it inspired would improve the lives of millions of people.

[expat_panama]

Yeah, Mexico always cheats, whatever, fine.

Look; my take is that most people I do business with will sometimes cheat, and it's my job to make sure that they don't cheat me.  I do a good job of protecting me and mine.  Unless you got someone else in charge of handling your affairs, you're doing the same thing as I do because virtually everyone you'll ever do business with has cheated on something.

This tread is for talking about whether we like import taxes or not.  I like all kinds of tax-cuts, including import tax-cuts.  I understand you want higher import taxes.  I'm saying that I don't want high import taxes even if it's supposed to help protect me from cheaters. 

[Eastbound]

So what really is the downside of globalization? Are we willing to dissolve our Sovereignty and alter our Constitution for a cheaper pair of shoes?

Shouldn't the general public (Citizens, of course) be fully informed of costs vs benefits?

Did we empower government to make sweeping changes in our economy, our laws, and our political destiny without our knowledge and consent?

I don't think so.

My chief concern is that our personal freedoms, our liberties, our right to self-determination, and our ownership of America itself will be irrevocably cut asunder by stealth and force.

And yes, I fully believe the so-called North American Union plan is a stealth highway to hell. (I know this is not the precise topic here, but all roads are connected here.)

Personally, I'd rather go barefooted and eat grits than see that happen.

Here are some other downside arguments:

Our World Is Not For Sale

Among other factors, our nation evolved as the greatest independent and most powerful nation in the world because of the profit motive.

Super-greed will destroy it overnight.

[Smartass]

FYI

And the band plays on...

---

Hayworth: "Illegal Immigration Putting American Health Care System at Risk" Washington - Congressman J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) joined other members of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in listening to alarming testimony from a panel of nationwide health care experts regarding the negative impact that illegal immigration is having on America's health care system. These experts testified that emergency care units across America are cracking under the huge expense incurred in treating uninsured, illegal immigrants who come into their hospitals requiring emergency and extended care. They say the numbers of illegals who come to the emergency room has skyrocketed because illegals know they cannot be turned away. "The challenge is to find a solution that is reasonable and compassionate in treating the sick, but without putting an undue burden on the American taxpayer. Illegals are not only sneaking into the U.S. to find jobs, they are taking advantage of our health care system, racking up millions of dollars in unpaid bills." said Rep. Hayworth. Here are some examples of the economic impact illegal immigration has had on American health care: According to a study conducted in Mississippi, the cost of health care provided to illegal immigrants was about $35 million per year. Minnesota's study estimated that $17 million was spent on public assistance health care programs for unauthorized aliens. According to a study conducted in 2000, border hospitals spent more than $200 million to provide emergency care to undocumented aliens. According to a 2001 CRS study, $80.7 million was spent on emergency health services for illegal immigrants in Arizona. The same study showed that California spent $648.4 million. The federal government estimates that California hospitals spent at least $1.02 billion on health care for illegal immigrants in 2005.

Alan Kelly, Vice President and General Counsel for Scottsdale Health Care, testified that they spent over $300,000 on care, transport, and legal fees one illegal immigrant patient. After the Mexican government refused to take him back into their country, the hospital hired a private detective and found the following. The patient had seven aliases, six Social Security cards, had been arrested three times (once on distribution drug charges) and deported seven times. Scottsdale Health Care finally did send him back to Mexico via ambulance, at the hospital's expense.

"It is clear that we have a serious problem on our hands and one that won't go away unless we act," said Rep. Hayworth. "I think our witnesses today got it right when they said the best way to address this problem is to enforce our immigration laws and secure the border. That's why I'm so committed to a policy of enforcement first."

"Our hospitals are supposed to help sick patients, not play border patrol," said Alan Kelly, Vice President and General Counsel for Scottsdale Health Systems. "While hospitals have a moral obligation to provide quality health care, the federal government also has an obligation -- to enforce our immigration laws."

 

[texastoo]

Great article! Hopefully, something will be done someday, somehow,somewhere about illegal immigration.

[texastoo]

Look; my take is that most people I do business with will sometimes cheat, and it's my job to make sure that they don't cheat me. I do a good job of protecting me and mine. Unless you got someone else in charge of handling your affairs, you're doing the same thing as I do because virtually everyone you'll ever do business with has cheated on something.

Tell that to the south Texas farmers who had to watch their crops dry up and ruin in the fields. They had already paid for the water.

This tread is for talking about whether we like import taxes or not.

Read the article. It is about the doha round trade which may not survive due to farm subsidies. Now, read the thread and you will see that I am the only one who addressed the article. My bad, as I didn't address the socialization of 3rd world countries that free trade agreements encourage. My feelings just weren't feeling right. Sarcasm

[Arizona Carolyn]

Our government's view of "free trade" is to do away with the middle class and turn this into a verson of Mexico, India, China, etc... with an Elite ruling class and the poor worker-serfs who are so uneducated they don't know any better; nothing in between.

When the transisiton is completed then they will bring the jobs back to our shores and make even more money because the high transportation cost of goods will be removed from their bottom line.

[hedgetrimmer]

In all those years you should have learned that trade has nothing to do with illegal immigration

This is just a flat out whopper when it comes to "free trade".

[1rudeboy]

How come under NAFTA Mexican trucks and drivers that do not come close to our standards of safety and training are clogging our highways with obviously overloaded trucks and we cannot haul into precious Mexico?

How did I miss this one? Read for a good chuckle.

[Sam Cree]

*

[1rudeboy]

Hopefully, something will be done someday, somehow,somewhere about illegal immigration.

Not likely, if folks continue to blame NAFTA for it.

[1rudeboy]

I've read the texts of numerous free trade agreements, and I keep missing the section(s) regarding illegal immigration.

[Mase]

Are we willing to dissolve our Sovereignty and alter our Constitution for a cheaper pair of shoes?

Maybe you could explain how reducing barriers to trade dissolves our sovereignty. Our nation has never been more powerful or wealthier than it is today. The EU provides a good example of surrendered sovereignty because they ceded decision making to commissions represented by people from the various countries. They have also given powers to an EU legislature whose members are elected by the member states. This has no relationship to how American trade agreements work.

Our trade agreements serve to limit the power of government by empowering the individual. Congress and the President can exit a trade agreement at anytime they choose. We do not lose our sovereignty in any way.

[Mase]

This is just a flat out whopper when it comes to "free trade".

Are you now you're going to tell us when "free trade" began and then prove that illegal immigration didn't exist before that time?

[1rudeboy]

post hoc ergo propter hoc

Works every time. :)

[Mase]

Our government's view of "free trade" is to do away with the middle class and turn this into a verson of Mexico, India, China

If you believe this to be true, maybe you can show us how the government is doing away with the middle class.

While you're at it, maybe you can explain the chart below if the middle class is being done away with.

[Mase]

Heheh.

Logical fallicies are the protectionists best friend.

[hedgetrimmer]

Note that the first premise of this article is

The most relevant and important benefit of free trade is its deliverance of lower prices for all consumers.
What does the author mean by this? That consumers all over the world get lower prices? What about in countries where the prices are already low? Do they go even lower? Does this mean that the cost of goods is lower, which implies that the cost of labor is lower?

Why doesn't the author say that the most important 'benefit' of "free trade" to transnational corporations is its deliverance of lower wages for all workers? How does that work in the United States, where our costs are based on first world costs for housing, infrastructure and taxes and regulation? What happens to a system where lower wages are forced into it, but all the other costs remain the same?

The author neglects to mention that some of the consumers,at least in this country, are also citizens. Does he think that citizenship is never a consideration when an individual makes decisions about his life? Does he think we live on flat earth where human beings only have one dimension, and that is what they consume?

[1rudeboy]

It's quite simple. If you exclude households that make $75K or more from the data, then that graph on the left looks a whole lot different.

[hedgetrimmer]

Oh, and here's another one:

But free trade lowers prices. What the author left out was,
for transnational corporations. That doesn't necessarily mean lower prices on goods purchased in the United States.

[Toddsterpatriot]

I've read the texts of numerous free trade agreements, and I keep missing the section(s) regarding illegal immigration.

Protectionists are bad at math and they have reading comprehension issues.