“Free trade” would more accurately be called “freedom for other countries to undercut and destroy American domestic production” because in practice that is what is happening. This is an undeniable fact that should be obvious to any consumer or business in this country. Very little of what is consumed here is made by American-owned companies operating in America. This was not formerly the case, and it was not how the wealth of this country was created.
If China exports us 100% of their output for a year ....
.... and we export nothing to China for that year ....
.... who wins?
Offshoring All Production to third World Countries using Slave Labor and importing those goods Duty Free is NOT TRADE, and it is NOT FREE, it is Economic Suicide!
A rabbi and a priest are in a field of strawberries dotted with tall apple trees. In order to meet their Maker, they must thoroughly harvest their hectare. The priest is 7 feet tall; the rabbi is a pisher (5 feet tall, for those of you not fluent in Yiddish). Who should do what?
Duh. The tall guy picks the apples; the short guy harvests the strawberries. Easy call. That’s comparative advantage – the rabbi is vertically-challenged so he has a comparative advantage picking things low whereas the priest is high so he may pick unforbidden fruit.
The notion follows that countries have similar advantages: Kiwi grows easily in New Zealand, and not so easily in Saudi Arabia. Now Saudi gardeners could probably build shade, import soil, and mist-ify water to try and replicate the natural conditions of New Zealand but… why? Why not just let the Kiwis grow their kiwis and ship ‘em (on boats powered by Saudi oil…).
I love the B.S. arguments posited by “Globalist” free trade supporters. Oh, American workers may EARN less but they pay less for the cheap Chinese crap in stores. Oh, REALLY.
Will shifting part of the production of Oreos to Mexico, cause the price of Oreas sold in the US to drop? LOL. Apple stuff is made in China and Apple stuff isn’t low-priced.
How about health care, tuition, house prices, and apartment rent? How does being able to buy cheap crap from China compensate for not earning enough to pay for these?
Also, not every worker has the mental chops to become a software engineer, and not every person will benefit from getting a college degree, but millions of people getting college degrees WILL drive up the price of getting one for EVERYONE, including the people who need degrees.
Any Republican that votes for globalism and free trade, resulting in more working class Americans having crap retail jobs instead of manufacturing jobs, is essentially creating a large constituency that will ultimately support socialism.
To Oppose Free Trade is to Embrace Violence
Let the discussion begin.
Let’s suppose we put on trade restrictions.
Who decides?
The answer is “your master”.
Many people pointed out this problem back in the early 1970’s before the Japanese automakers steamrollered the American auto industry.
Japan was selling more cars in America every year but made it almost impossible for any meaningful volume of US autos to be sold in Japan.
But most of the the US media and influential politicians from both parties ridiculed critics and demonized them.
That was a time when America was still an industrial giant with heavy industry employing millions at good wages.
But our politicians with their lopsided trade agreements let most of those industries die and sent the jobs to other countries.
For what?
More people on welfare and government handouts?
Where is this “Free Trade” of which you speak?
I have to laugh. Americans are demanding $15 an hour to flip burgers and people think we will bring manufacturing back here with tariffs? Really?
Even if you could raise tariffs high enough to cover the greatly increased labor costs of manufacturing in America, you would still have additional costs due to environmental regulations, occupational safety regulations, financial regulations, etc.
Also, even if it somehow would work, nobody has yet been able to explain to me why a welfare program for factory workers is the business of the federal government, or how it is going to be beneficial when every other welfare program is not.
Actual free trade and low to no taxes and regulation on business would advance the most productive economies, bring such economies ever increasing prosperity. That would be us as we have the most productive and innovative labor force on earth. Free trade and deregulation and detaxification would also bring the world’s greatest industries to HERE. “Free Trade” as practiced by statists includes no elements of free trade as every relationship is determined by politicians and includes trade definitions and controls and assignations of favors and quasi monopoly status. The only way to implement free trade and benefit immensely as society from it is to simply cut off the taxes and regulations on business and eliminate all tariffs, limits, controls of any sort.
We have other industries. Industries have always throughout time gone away for one reason or another and new ones have been created to replace them. There is typically some pain in the transition period. The government cannot legislate a pain-free economy for us.