Posted on 03/11/2008 9:33:27 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Put on your flame-retardant suit. In this bizzarro world, protectionism and mercantilism are somehow considered economic conservatism, and allowing the personality cult of Barak O’Carter gain the presidency is somehow considered standing up for conservative priciples.
No one has sufficiently explained the unfairness of it all.
if you don’t want to buy from china, don’t buy from china.
Just don’t tell other americans what to do with their own money and let’s get rid of the nanny state that tries to protect companies that can’t compete.
Exactly right!
The US should eliminate all trade barriers unilaterally. It should set an example for freedom.
and they think raising taxes somehow creates jobs
That would work on the blackboard, but you’d have a serious free-rider problem.
Your understanding of what China is doing via “free trade” is woeful.
What % of US intellectual property (software, music, firmware, designs, etc) does china actually pay for?
What taxes are put onto US products when they arrive on China’s shore? How about when Chinese products come here?
What punishment has China received for using US high tech products for their military applications, against the trade agreements and US law?
What is an offset? Why does China require them?
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you don’t have any idea that our free trade is actually very poorly managed “managed trade”.
But I'm for free trade. If it weren't for NAFTA then Mexicans would have even less jobs and more Mexicans would move to the U.S.A. which McCain wants but I don't want.
American companies can't compete with those in other countries like China because liberals/Democrats/socialist have imposed so many environmental laws, OSHA, workmen's comp laws, Affirmative action, minimum wage laws , laws that allow unions and personal injury lawyers to sue,other laws and regulations and taxes that cripple U.S. businesses of all types but mainly manufacturing.
It seems like I'm splitting hairs, but it's nearly impossible to have a serious discussion about "free trade" (just as it is to have a serious discussion about "fair trade") if everyone makes up their definitions on the fly.
I’m for most trade deals but we have to get rid of this idea that trade barriers help us and that we’re only giving a favor when we eliminate them. Americans benefit from lower prices and more choices.
YES!!
In the early-90s, when Nafta was being promoted, I had a hard time deciding whether I agreed with it or not. The good versus the bad was difficult to gauge. The argument that eventually won me over was that it was supposed to help boost certain quarters of the Mexican economy, leading to a substantial decrease in illegal immigration! Being burned (severely) on that single point, I really don’t have any inclination to find myself ever defending the darned accord, even if some of the economic data might indeed prove positive.
You need to ask yourself: if we backed out of NAFTA tomorrow, would illegal immigration slow to a trickle or even stop? Don't kid yourself.
That’s why China in Walmart is unionized.....buy the communist party. That’s why Google and Yahoo has had to assist China in stamping out free speech on their internet. That’s why the PLA is embedded in so many of the high tech US-China partnerships. That’s why products by Chinese companies pop up all the time using stolen, bribed for, or reversed engineered patented technology and designs? That’s why they have the most aggressive corporate espionage system in the world?
You read about those successes in starbucks and Cat in selling to the chicoms, yet why don’t you mention that the trade deficit with China this past year grew another 11% to an all time high near $300 BILLION. Profits that are not just in the pockets of chinese businessmen, but the communist government, who is purhcasing, stealing and bribing for the most sophisticated military technologies on the planet.
If there’s anything we’ve learned, anything McCain is touting must be deeply flawed.
(Btw, try on any Target `Cherokee’ khakis before buying, unless you like that `skin-tight’ look; they’re now made in Vietnam, People’s Republic of, and I believe they used a starving Somali girl as their typical buyer.)
U.S.A. Manufacturing D.O.A.
It's just another location for these companies.
Yes the Chinese GOVERNMENT is doing a lot of bad things but so is the U.S. Government. What many are doing by cutting down trade with China is punishing private Chinese and American companies that operate in China that are providing many products we need.
You should draw a distinction between the Chinese government and private companies. There are some private companies in China that produce high quality, safe products at a low price and still follow all U.S. laws.
There you go again, the same old "comparative advantage" mantra. Perhaps you don't know, but when the classical liberals (Smith, Hume, Ricardo) promulgated their free trade theories, they prophesied that trade would be kept in balance by the exchange of gold.
Today, there is no gold standard or exchange. When a nation racks up a huge trade deficit year after year, eventually that country's currency will collapse. We're seeing the beginning of the collapse of the U.S. dollar.
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