Arguments Against Free Trade Are Deeply Flawed

Townhall.com ^ | April 8, 2016 | Jonah Goldberg

[1rudeboy]

I remember when NAFTA was supposed to create a Mexican middle class who were suppose to buy American made products. All these years later and the Mexicans are still dirt poor and the American jobs are long gone.

And Donald Trump is whining about high-paying jobs going to Mexico! Strange world.

[1rudeboy]

Say, when your credit card company sends you its bill, is it one page? If not, it should be. See where I’m going with this?

[baltimorepoet]

Malaysia is part of the TPP.

[1rudeboy]

Ok, so we don’t have a free trade agreement with Malaysia.

[baltimorepoet]

What was Von Mises position on Malaysian slave labor making computer circuit boards?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

False analogy.

A bill needs to show all the line items that have been charged.

A 5,000 page trade agreement is 5,000 pages of specials deals for special people.

[baltimorepoet]

The free trade people want us to ratify TPP in 2016. Then we WILL.

[1rudeboy]

BS. A 5,000 page trade agreement is 90% legal boilerplate.

[bmwcyle]

Free trade should be fair trade. It is not.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Legal boilerplate is special deals for special people.

[1rudeboy]

"the free trade people?"

There are plenty of "free trade people" who are looking askance at the TPP.

[Uncle Miltie]

If money manipulation creates wealth, then let’s add or subtract a zero to the u.s. dollar.

That will manipulate the currency directly, and we will win.

Now, you tell me whether we have to add or subtract a zero to manipulate the dollar into massive wealth.

[1rudeboy]

Alternatively, it is something that you yourself can’t bother to read, yet have an opinion about . . . .

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Kill all the lawyers.

[baltimorepoet]

I still want to know how “free trade” supports freedom when it encourages slavery.

Want to know what kind of actions support freedom? John Brown seizing Harper Ferry in 1859, Sherman burning down Atlanta in 1864.

[1rudeboy]

That’s what that character in that Shakespeare play said, hoping for his dictatorship.

[baltimorepoet]

I’ll consider supporting free trade the day I actually see the US force foreign countries to adhere to it.

Until then, it is just imaginary, like catching a leprechaun riding a unicorn that is crapping rainbows into a pot of gold.

[1rudeboy]

I agree. It's all in your imagination. You believe that we have "free trade" with countries with which we do not.

You see, words mean things, apart from what you believe.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I knew that would get a rise out of you.

All the environmental scams are run by law firms. The big-government/big-legal criminal-complex funnels taxpayer money to them like it was going out of style.

[1rudeboy]

I'll just give you my non sequitur look, now.