My Turn: Beware claims of 'free trade'

Salisbury Post ^ | December 27, 2010 | Michael C. Tuggle

[triumphant values]

“Free Trade” agreements create jobs. Our area witnessed a vivid illustration of this in November 2005, when the brick walls of the massive Pillowtex Plant No. 1 in Kannapolis crumbled to the ground. Four thousand pounds of dynamite in shaped cartridges detonated to create a series of controlled explosions that shattered critical supports throughout the structure, and gravity did the rest. Spectators gasped and yelled in response to the succession of booms, and at the huge crumbling sections that slammed to earth with so much force, they blew dust even higher than the towering smokestacks that stood untouched nearby. But all then gazed in silence at the eerie precision of the collapsing structure, which dropped exactly as the engineers of the D.H. Griffin Wrecking Company planned.

It was Griffin’s second-largest demolition job in the company’s history. Its largest was the World Trade Center cleanup. Nine months later, it took down the twin smokestacks.

When Fieldcrest executives first announced the closing in 2003, workers gathered at the plant for weeks afterward during lunch breaks and days off to hold prayer vigils. When the plant closed, 4,300 workers lost their jobs, the largest single layoff in North Carolina history. The Kannapolis area still has not recovered. While the state unemployment rate just increased to 9.7 percent, Kannapolis struggles with a rate of 12.3 percent.

Even supporters of the North American Free Trade Act, which had eliminated tariffs between the US, Canada, and Mexico, admitted Washington’s free trade policies were to blame. Economist Michael L. Walden, in an article entitled, “Pillowtex: Don’t forget the benefits of freer trade,” identified “lower-cost foreign labor” as the reason so many American textile and apparel jobs had vanished overseas. From 1997 to 2002, North Carolina lost 100,000 textile and 70,000 apparel jobs.

[Alberta's Child]

Right -- but that's precisely the kind of approach that has effectively eliminated much of the comparative advantage the South had over the Northeast when it came to manufacturing. The South had lower labor costs, less stringent environmental regulations, less stringent financial oversight in many respects, more lax workplace safety rules, etc. Those things began to disappear once you had Federal oversight of all these areas (think Social Security and Medicare taxes, OSHA, the EPA, etc.) that effectively narrowed the "cost gap" between different parts of the U.S.

Our people are to get preferences by us over their people, because they are our people and no other reason is needed. That's how simple it is.

I like that attitude and respect you for it, but how prevalent is it when it comes to the price that people are willing to pay for the things they buy?

[FreedomNotSafety]

So a “patriot” invest without any thought to those things? I guess since patriots do not have to think about such things you cannot be bothered with answering my question but I'll try again: Why should a company invest here in the good ole’ USA?

Can a patriot be bothered with explaining how he will restrict my right to spend my money freely? Or do patriots not think of such things and just let their government do it for them?

[VideoDoctor]

Do not blame “free trade”.

MEGAPHONE:

"Please put down the container of kool-aid your drinking from and come out with your hands over your head."

[familyop]

The peasant slaves in Colombia live in squalor.

[Daveinyork]

“How would you know? Unless you are older then most humans you’ve never had free trade.”

That’s actually true. The people who are trashing free trade don’t seem to know that.

[Daveinyork]

So, your saying that the cost of smaller government (free trade) is bigger government ( food stamps, etc.) How about we shrink the government, get rid of protectionism, AND food stamps.

[FreedomNotSafety]

What is that about? First my patriotism is insulted and now you are insinuating that I am part of a cult (I do appreciate the humor though)?

What is so hard to understand about free trade? Trade agreements are what most of the anti-free trade crowd dislike. I agree with them. Get rid of all of the agreements. I also go one step further and say get rid of our laws that restrict my freedom to spend my money as I see fit.

I guess having the freedom to spend my money the way I see fit is what most of you have problem with. Yet when I ask you to explain how you will prevent me from spending as I see fit I do not get answers but insults.

[central_va]

I like free trade. It reduces my cost of living and of doing business.

I guarantee you PillowTex isn't charging any less for their slave built products.

[Daveinyork]

PillowTex? I don’t know what they do. Do they make pillows?

[central_va]

To the worker laid off or the town that dries up and crumbles, it doesn’t really matter where the mill goes, does it?

Actually your argument is juvenile. Somebody from Mass can move to NC very easily and get his old job back. To China, get real.

[familyop]

Anti-American trade will come to an end soon enough. Make haste in learning all that you can about technologies—low tech. (thermal energy, mechanics, construction, food, etc.), then high tech.

Avoid giving anyone any quote in advance. Have “professionals” pay at least half up front on arrival. That includes auto repairs, sensible heating systems (solar), plumbing, electrical work (including security systems)—all. ...same with agricultural products from gardens and the like. And don’t trade at all with traitors or their employees.

[central_va]

Our people are to get preferences by us over their people, because they are our people and no other reason is needed. That's how simple it is.

You are talking to a free trader, and to them, Free Trade™ is a religion.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Most freedom bashing people on this thread are responding to what the media defines as free trade. One thing none of the Free Republic freedom bashing crowd will do is explain how they would implement their desire to control how the rest of us spend our money.

[familyop]

"How about we shrink the government,..."

I'm ready, but the academic and government relatives and friends of traitors wouldn't like it. Social programs (programs supporting the divorce industry, affirmative action, etc.) keep the potential domestic competition down, as do false environmentalist front-girls from corporate families/offices).

[Hawthorn]

>> A 10% unemployment heaven. <<

That situation won’t last forever. And when we do eventually emerge from the current Øbama-imposed malaise, then the former “textile” region of the Carolina Piedmont (both NC and SC) will be among the very best performing economies in the USA.

[central_va]

Most freedom bashing people on this thread are responding to what the media defines as free trade. One thing none of the Free Republic freedom bashing crowd will do is explain how they would implement their desire to control how the rest of us spend our money.

Tariff is not a four letter word. Whatever PillowTex makes with slave labor should have a severe duty on it. Call it the slave labor tariff.

Since tariffs are consumption based then nobody is telling you how to spend your money, right??

[central_va]

I like free trade. It reduces the ability of my friends and family to make a live, and then they are more dependent on the government. This makes them more likely to vote for Democrats in the future. The other good thing is it has removed their self worth, and removed hope for the future from their children, helping them down the path of crime. And of course, there is that Free Trade sends billions to China, so they can build their future as the new world power.

What's not to like? Free Trade™ it's not an economic theory it's a religion.

This post sponsored by Free Trade™ hollowing out the US industrial base and making the world safe for collectivism one strategic industry at a time.

[familyop]

FromLori replied:
"Have you ever considered the cost of Food Stamps and Welfare benefits you are paying as a result of so many Americans losing jobs?"

Not to mention that more frequent, merry-go-round of security nukes pushed through the skies, halfway around the earth by obscene quantities of fuel. The bipartisan, globalist American folks gave the PLA our manufacturing, technologies, and even saw to it that their engineers are educated here for decades.

Oh, well, as their preferred communist nation gets richer, it'll pay off for the free traitors in a free-falling dollar, skyrocketing freight fuel prices and scarier times ahead. ...and their kind of women in corporate/government social jobs coming home to rule their roosts again.

[FreedomNotSafety]

One concrete reply, thank you. A tariff is a straight forward way of implementing your belief that I should not have the freedom to spend my money as I see fit. It still restricts my freedom since my money now goes not only to my supplier but to our government.

I am curious how do you chose which items get a tariff and which ones do not? Since you said that Pillowtex should have a “severe duty” for anything made with slave labor please tell me what the tariff is if slave labor is not used? And if it is not too much bother please tell me what you consider to be slave labor?

Again I appreciate the fact that you are willing to explain how this should work. If I am going to be forced at the point of a gun to pay extra for Pillowtex products I would like to know why.

[triumphant values]

It still restricts my freedom since my money now goes not only to my supplier but to our government.

Yes, there is a government in conservative philosophy that is funded by taxes. You need to find an anarcho-capitalist forum that would be more to your liking.