Posted on 03/17/2016 1:15:58 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Donald Trump and his fellow liberals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are lambasting free trade as the scourge of the American working man. How odd it is that an economic activity so beneficial to almost every American, indeed to the vast majority of the human race, suffers such attacks with only half-hearted defenses raised by politicians who should know better and economists who do know better.
I stipulate: in trade, as in any economic endeavor, there are losers in the short run. Capitalism is, after all, fundamentally a system of creative destruction. But if there is any area of agreement among economists of all political stripes — a group among whom finding agreement is exceptionally difficult given their unique decision-making anatomy — it is that free trade provides large net benefits to the societies that engage in it, even if other nations do not lower trade barriers to the same degree.
Furthermore, the benefits of trade accrue in large measure to the lower economic echelons of society in an extension of Schumpeter’s profound observation that “the capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls in return for steadily decreasing amounts of effort.”
Allow me to offer a few quotes (emphasis added) from one prominent economist, at the time a professor at an elite university, who was lamenting the poor understanding of international trade in the United States:
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
“Savior” would imply I’m into idolatry, which I’m not.
I’ll tell you an interesting story. Spoke to a man the other day who’s double my age. He reminded me my generation will never see Social Security payments, which of course I already know because I’m not exactly a stupid person.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him by decimating my generation’s middle class future and saddling us with incredible debt without jobs, it’s really the older generation that will sacrifice their Social Security and their healthcare. That’s how socialism works after you decimated your workforce.
We’re going to try something different without the social experiments this time because this coming mega recession is going to be so much worse.
Americans need jobs to head it off at the pass. When you stop working, you die.
What has Trump done to earn your trust?
Before you start telling me that 60% have voted against Trump, remember, Trump has 2,000,000 more votes than Cruz.
I suppose you'd like the Electoral College to go away.
Ted Cruz has won the majority of delegates in 8 states and one territory, despite the MSM's huge gratis multi-billion dollar campaign coverage of Donald Trump.
Big cap manufacturing LOVES regulations for two reasons. It keeps the upstart riff-raff out of the market and it also gives cover for the offshoring, a fig leaf if you will. They really want to exploit slave labor overseas and "overbearing" regulations and taxes are the prefect cover and "movement" conservatives fall for this BS every time.
Dittos
If the agreement is no more than 2 pages long, it is FREE trade. If the deal is 20,000 pages long plus addendum, appendix and side agreements then what is it?
If it seeks to cut carbon emissions, what is it?
If it seeks to be fair what is it?
If it seeks to impose big government on boats and airplanes then what is it?
If it requires many forms and inspectors to verify its compliance, then what is it?
Dumping subsidized exports on our shores while at the same time using administrative red tape to block ours is not “free trade”.
Amazing how the quality of the product never enters your calculations. I have found most Asian products are very inferior.
Gee what a stupid post, where do I begin?
One day Jim will give you the boot, can’t wait.
Agreed, but those people who have lost their jobs, who have seen their towns decimated, or their wages depressed should, you know, move, or get another job, or something.
One thing they should not do is expect that their opinion should carry any weight, especially in an election.
This is clearly an example of Establishment fringe lunatic philosophy.
-—What’s good for business is good for all Americans. Businesses don’t survive if they don’t have happy customers. Trickle-down economics work. Free trade rules. Capitalism rocks.——
Yep, that’s worth repeating, a fundamental American truth valid since the beginning.
What’s good for business is good for all Americans. Businesses don’t survive if they don’t have happy customers. Trickle-down economics work. Free trade rules. Capitalism rocks.
The reason is that the functional obsolescence of a product is often more important than its quality or durability. Home appliances and electronics are a perfect case in point. I have a television that still works even though it is probably 25 years old. One of its attractive features to the original buyer is that it has a built-in VHS system. But even if this thing "works," it is sitting gathering dust until the next electronics recycling date in my town -- because it doesn't have any more value in an age when DVDs and web streaming have replaced VHS tapes.
When you purchase something, think of the life cycle of that product in terms of its useful life, not just its physical durability.
How can we have free trade when other countries cheat with such tactics as massive currency manipulation?
OK, now I've heard everything, Free Traitors™ are a creative lot I'll give you that.
After 30 years of budget deficits, astronomical unemployment, urban decay and huge trade deficits you’d think Free Traitors™ would be rounded up and put in either insane asylums or concentration camps.
Doesn't matter. No trade the US has EVER conducted has been "free" or "equal" or "fair" -- that was always a fantasy that doesn't matter.
Who cares how "fair" it is? Nobody. People buy stuff from those durn furriners because they consider it to be to their advantage to do so under the terms at the time. Always have, always will.
Second exactly why do Trump, Clinton, and Sanders lambast [sic] free trade?
Because they are all economic illiterates and they think it sounds good to make idiotic "arguments" against trade.
The amount of economic nonsense of this and every trade thread here is astounding.
Most people here get the fact that a minimum wage (regardless of level) is a bad idea and increases unemployment. How is it that they don't also get that tariffs/protectionism is far, far worse?
That if implemented on any serious basis it would cost everyone hundreds of billions to protect a few jobs that aren't worth protecting. Huge net negative to the economy. Sorta like increasing the minimum wage, but on a much bigger scale.
Most jobs that have left -- mostly unionized low-skill, no-skill jobs -- aren't something you would want to do or want your kid to do for more than a week.
The union above-market wage extortion scheme has been imploding for 50 years. Surprise, surprise, wages have been stagnant for decades as this process works itself out.
Even with no trade at all, all of those "lost" jobs would have been automated out of existence, out of necessity.
Get over it. Our problem isn't trade, it's a useless education system and ridiculous regulations and high taxes.
If you have no skills that aren't common, you're gonna get paid accordingly, if at all. I say "if at all" because the taxes and regulations may wind up meaning the business that might have paid you could wind up being formed in some other country because of the US tax and regulatory scheme.
Oops, you're outta luck. Nothing to do with trade.
Free Traitor™ hate speech. Go Trump, go!
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