Posted on 10/04/2007 7:07:18 AM PDT by SJackson
I've seen a lot of opinion polling, but my jaw dropped when I saw this result from our special NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll of Republicans in advance of next week's presidential candidate debate sponsored by CNBC, MSNBC and the WSJ. By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democratic views and suggests trade deals could face high hurdles under a new president.
Six in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations to limit foreign imports. That represents a challenge for Republican candidates who generally echo Mr. Bush’s calls for continued trade expansion, and reflects a substantial shift in sentiment from eight years ago.
"It’s a lot harder to sell the free-trade message to Republicans," said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with Democratic counterpart Peter Hart.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Free trade is not the issue, fair trade is, as Duncan Hunter likes to point out.
Do I have a horrible "trade deficit" with the grocery store because I spend hundreds of dollars there every month without them buying a single thing from me?
The term "trade deficit" is deceptive, because it's not a deficit at all, any more than my fiscal relationship with the grocery store is.
bump
Those who think foreign imports are so bad should simply stop buying them. They can buy only American-made goods—or do without.
Instead, they would have the government tell people what they may or may not buy.
It goes without saying that most Americans(Republicans included) don’t know a darn thing about economics. You don’t need a poll to tell you that. Haven’t you heard? “Those evil underhanded furriners are taking our jobs and destroying our manufacturing base.” Of course unemployment is low, our manufacturing output is higher than ever, and our GDP is monstrous, but that’s just silly economics.
We’ve all been through this right here literally thousands of times. Free traders can explain the benefits, post the numbers, and a month later the same exact posters will be back posting the same protectionist/socialist nonsense. It’s like the socialized medicine argument, all of the emotion is on one side of the equation and you have to argue uphill everytime it comes up.
Hmmmmmm. now what presidential candidate is MOST inline with this American Majority opinion....
Maybeeeeeeeeeeee....
DUNCAN HUNTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Why do you assume that freepers wouldn’t be involved in such a poll?”
Because I’ve been here long enough to know that many, (most?), freepers believe in free trade as if it were a religion. Of course they want all their way. They want American protection for global endeavors.
I agree with you, fair trade is good, free trade, not so much.
There are three categories:
1) those who benefit from free-trade;
2) those who are harmed by free-trade; and,
3) those who are essentially insulated from free-trade.
Don’t confuse category three (i.e., government workers and the service economy) with category one.
In category one are financial services, the info-tech industries, high-wage manufacturing (aircraft, industrial vehicles and equipment), agriculture, and our nation’s leading hospitals and universities. These are our sectors that sell goods and services to foreignors.
Another comment: I don’t know why this poll focuses on free-trade. Lower taxes, social securitiy privatization, education vouchers, medical savings accounts, and I can go on, in other words, support for the entire traditional Republican economic program is down.
Today, “conservative” means little more than being for war and against immigration.
Oh, and today, Republicans are losing elections.
I hope you guys are happy with socialism after Hillary is President and the Democrats have 60 votes in the U.S. Senate.
I would submit to you that a lot of people who aren’t investors have been looking at their paycheck and realizing that all the airy-fairy promises of the economists about wage growth haven’t come true, and that what the Little General (Perot) said about wages did come true.
“Free trade” and WTO/GATT has resulted in bogus regulations of the EU being pushed down on American businesses, lawsuits filed in punitive actions against American companies while European violators go scot-free. Look no further than the crap being brought against Boeing and Microsoft, two of our largest exporters, even now.
The American people gave it a fair shot, free trade hasn’t produced what the proponents promised, fair shot is over. Economists need to either shut up or lose their jobs. Because when most Americans are wrong at work, they suffer some penalty.
Economists, however, are like government weather forecasters: they can be consistently wrong and they keep their jobs. That should change.
Go to any Rust Belt city and you’ll be proven dead wrong.
Cities built upon manufacturing economies are dead. And you say that’s a good thing?
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJ-POLL-20071003.pdf
10. Now I a going to read you two statements about foreign trade, please tell me which statement comes closer to your point of view.
Statement A: Foreign trade has been good for the U.S. economy, because demand for U.S. products abroad has resulted in economic growth and jobs for Americans here at home and provided more choices for consumers.
Statement B: Foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy, because imports from abroad have reduced demand for American-made goods, cost jobs here at home, and produced potentially unsafe products.
Statement A 32%
Statement B 59%
Some of both 6%
Neither 1%
Not sure 2%
“As with most subject, it is ignorance which spawns fear. Too many do not understand the laws of economics, so they fear them instead. What makes prices go up and down is a mystery to them, so it’s treated like voodoo.”
What drivel. I well understand “the laws of economics” except I think most would call them principles and theories. They’re hardly laws. You might consider the possibility that more Americans are becoming aware that we don’t have free trade, that particularly Asian nations intentionally keep their markets mostly closed while taking full advantage of the more open US markets. It’s been so for decades and they have no intention of changing. Many call it the “Asian model” for growth, and most nations follow it, which explains our ever expanding trade deficit.
But this entire so-called free trade based mostly on notions of comparative advantage assumes that the only value to be considered is the lowest production cost. Maybe that’s your only value, but not for a majority of Americans.
And we don’t have free trade with these agreements which require thousands of pages of description. Many industries are still protected in the US and Europe and most are still protected in other parts of the world.
right - is it “free trade” when both countries don’t import freely from one another with no penalty??
Can anyone convince me that this manipulation within the oil industry is “free trade?”
Is it “free trade” when so-called trade partners do not, and have no intention of honoring their part of the agreement, while the US keeps it?
Because the US has the largest and strongest economy in the world, the world feels it can rip off the US without any consequences - and do - and have throughout our lifetime.
And you are free to do so.
“Because our middle/working classes don’t benefit from inexpensive imports. Got it.”
Well, I’d say they don’t benefit from imports that lack quality control.
I’d also say that if your $12/hr manufacturing job left for China, and you are now working for $8/hr in the service sector, the cheap goods don’t offset the loss.
I think you meant to Ping Ultrasonic007, not ultrasonic. Unless they are evil twins.
Goolsby is way off the mark. Many jobs formerly handled by government workers ARE indeed being outsourced out of country.
One Small Example: Hundreds of County Clerks are sending original documents, copies and microfilm/fische oversees to be imaged onto CD/DVD. This is a task that could be handled with American companies or in-house staff.
Right— that’s my problem with it. FREE trade may be good, but what we have is the US following all the “rules” and everyone else not.
Right— that’s my problem with it. FREE trade may be good, but what we have is the US following all the “rules” and everyone else not.
Right— that’s my problem with it. FREE trade may be good, but what we have is the US following all the “rules” and everyone else not.
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