Posted on 09/15/2008 1:16:57 PM PDT by illiac
You haven't shown how tariffs are a benefit to the average Americans. But they work great for rich corporations who can hire expensive lobbyists. That's who benefits from tariffs, not the average American/
Americans do not want to be forced to support slave labor just because the internationalists prefer it as a mode of production.
Nobody forces Americans to buy products from countries with poor labor laws. If you don't like the way business is done in those countries, boycott their products.
Only 'global citizens' want Americans to support slave labor
The only one supporting slave labor is the strawman you have created.
Gubmint service — including the military — used to attract the best and brightest. Those days are fading quickly.
I'm mocking American companies that need to run to government to protect them from big, bad competition. Our economy and industry is the envy of the world and is based on American ingenuity, perserverance and creativity. I have full faith in Americans' ability to be competitive in the global economy.
You're making an emphatically anti-American claim right now.
What claim have I made that is anti-American? You're the one that seems to believe that we can't compete internationally without the government holding our hand.
Why would American industry become inefficient when Americans don't have to compete with slaves?
Let's see if you can follow this- if you get the government to protect you from certain competition, then you don't have to worry about how to beat that competition in the marketplace. This breeds inefficiency and leads to complacency.
Or are you claiming slavery is the only efficient type of labor?
Slave labor and cheap, low-skill labor are only efficient in low-end industries. If you're in an industry where an illiterate third-worlder can replace you for ten cents an hour, you need to start thinking about a career change. But you certainly should not expect the government to protect your cozy, inefficient job by forcing your fellow citizens to pay more for products.
I never said there is no competition in protectionist system. Just that certain competition is eliminated. I believe that Americans can take on the world, economically. You don't seem to share that belief.
Maybe you're getting confused with the command economy of communism, where there is no competition, just government sanctioned producers.
Communists are big fans of protectionism, because it prevents their people from choosing to buy foreign goods and services. China, for example, has very high tariffs. You're the one in favor off adopting China's trade policies, not me.
Again, the only one who supports slave labor is the strawman you've created.
Anyone who supports Constitutional government including constitutional tariffs must be made the recipients of ad hominem attacks.
Nobody is claiming that tariffs are unconstitutional, just that they're a bad idea.
These are old, tired and false arguments. Most of the American people don't fall for them anymore.
Which is why, I suppose, Americans buy hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign-made goods every year.
Personally, I believe my fellow Americans are qualified to make their own decisions as to what goods to buy, foreign or domestic. You want to use the nanny-state to prevent them from making the choice to, for example, purchase a Sony big-screen.
So, which one of us is anti-American?
Maybe it's my old age that's slowing me down here. Hedge is arguing that the Federal government forces us to enslave foreigners whenever the feds don't raise import taxes --have I got it right so far?
I'm all in favor of no personal income tax and free competition. But the fact that tariffs may have made sense 2 centuries ago doesn't mean they're a good idea now. And there simply is no way to argue that tariffs don't limit the choices of Americans to spend their money as they see fit.
The nanny state is the result of the corporatist fascism that "free traders" love.
So, in your mind, giving Americans more choices in how to spend their money equals "corporatist fascism?" How the heck does that work?
It didn't exist until the globalist "free traders" infested our government bent on corrupting it beyond recognition.
The nanny-state was created by people who think they know better than the average American how to run their lives. Who here supports using the government to control Americans' decisions? You do.
You're starting to sound a little ridiculous now, and your abhorrence to the US Constitution is showing.
Which of my posts on this thread show "an abhorrence to the US Constitution." Be specific.
Whoaaaa—Hedgetrimmer. If you’re telling me the Pubbie Party supports fascism I’d appreciate some specifics. Or do you equate conservatism with fascism?
My regard for RNC is low. But to my knowledge no one at that level supports anything other than democracy. Pubbies, even us conservatives, support no “ism” The only party that supports an “ism” is the Democrat Party.
The beauty of our constitution is that it is built on the belief that no one person or entity can ever have all the answers forever. That is exactly why so much flexibility and conflict—as in between the three branches of government—was built into the document. We are not supposed to “all just get along”. Tension and conflict are part of the human condition. This is what guarantees that no single group becomes paramount.
Our Constitution guarantees the protection of our inalienable rights. These rights come from God, not some two bit politician or government. That is the reason dem party leadership hates religion. It wants people to worship the government—their communist government.
Look, if you haven’t noticed the republican party became the democrat party a few years ago, with all the democrats changing parties...Arnold Schwarzenegger a premiere example of democrat agenda in republican clothing, you remember don’t you?
No I don’t equate conservatism with fascism. I was careful to accurately describe what has happened to our political system as corporatist fascism and both parties practice it at this time. Conservatives conserve, like the Constitution, correct? What we are seeing is the wholesale destruction of our political system and the American culture with the open borders globalist mentality at play in the current set of elected politicians. There is nothing conservative about what they are doing.
Our Constitution is beautiful, but citizens have abdicated their responsibility to the political parties (no freedom loving American would put up a Marxist globalist or an open borders globalist), yet the candidates the parties are offering show that citizens are no longer in control.
If also you have been observing the executive branch, you’ll have noticed a trend of consolidation of power to the executive. This has upset the balance of power between the three branches. I have to admit the judiciary has been successful in grasping some additional power itself, Congress on the other hand, has happily signed away it’s authority to global trade organizations like the WTO, global subsidiary councils of the UN like the codex alimentarius and so on ad nauseum. Since the people elect the congress and the president, but not the judiciary or the officials in the cabinet or federal government bureaucracies we have seen a net loss in our authority. I am hard pressed to find many citizens who care, most just ‘vote for the lesser evils’ and then forgedaboutit.
Globalization as it is in force today, is a form of fascism The global corporations control the agenda and form policies for policies individual governments to implement. Most of the fast track border policies, the law that Americans need to have passports to visit Canada or Mexico recently implemented, are both examples of global corporations setting policy in America. I might also add the H1B visas program which keeps getting expanded due to WTO trade negotiations and “free trade” agreements between India and formerly American corporations doing business with Indian workers. Congress, like a bunch of automatons, just keeps increasing the visas, no matter what the American people say.
Also, just to emphasize how corrupt our government has become, the public /private partnerships being touted as a way to maintain American infrastructure, is also fascism, government colluding with business to guarantee income to the chosen business, and business becoming a ‘partner’ with government and therefore securing more control over government officials that individual citizens could ever achieve. We no longer have a constitutional government when business and government are ‘partners’.
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