'One Free-Trade Ring To Rule Them All . . . .'

January 5, 2002 | adapted by Ironword

[Hugh Akston]

Absolutely!

[Torie]

You will regret getting Arator started on that topic. Of course, one needs to ponder just what topics one DOES want to get Arator started on.

[LibKill]

Pretty word games.

[x]

This is far less an economic issue than one of national security. Yet we've laid down with the enemy, all in the name of cheap loungewear and overpriced athletic shoes.

Bush allows faster supercomputers' export to China, India, Pakistan.

[Ironword]

Prescott Bush?

Both of them . . . .

[Ironword]

And make no mistake, every dime we spend in Beijing goes to buy rope for the People's Army.

Yep.

[McGavin999]

Not true at all. In China, things are made by hand, here we can use machines. First of all because our people are trained to use them to advantage. Did you read the thread the other day about the shoe maker in MA? The owner of the business used to have the shoes made in China, but found out that he could actually make them cheaper here. Yes, we can do it. Yes, fewer workers are needed to run the machines, but more workers are needed to MAKE the machines.

I have faith in American innovation, and I have faith in the American people.

[Luis Gonzalez]

When I say profitable, I am speaking of financially.

I am not making moral judgements, just simply finacial ones.

The institution of slavery is morally corrupt, and abominable to most.

[Luis Gonzalez]

I'm not worried about Arator, I have been waiting for an answer from him for months. It seems that according to him, I was a sellout for taking the Bush tax refund, I asked him if he had returned his, and he came back, with a totally straight face, and told me that it was his patriotic duty to keep it, after all, it was HIS money.

[Arator]

Prescott Bush?

Prescott Bush is Dubya's uncle and Spookdaddy's bro. He heads the US-ChiCom Chamber of Commerce and rides herd on the many Bush Clan-ChiCom business partnerships in the People's Republic. He's emblematic of the clan Bush's very personal and economic interest in the ChiComs, which is why, as long as a member of clan Bush (or their hand-picked proteges from spook central casting -- like Willy the Bent) clings to the presidency, the ChiCom's will be given carte blanche by the US government and the American people will be given the shaft.

[Longshanks]

It is worthy to note that the first free trade entitity on the planet, the British Empire, was also the first to abolish both slavery and the slave trade.

British businessmen understood that third-world wage slavery is much more profitable than traditional slavery since it doesn't require feeding, clothing, or housing the workers.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Good post. Thanks Ironword, and Happy New Year.

[GeronL]

bump

[MadIvan]

in fact, the social situation grows worse under a prosperous CCP.

Not entirely true. For example, prosperity is allowing "rebel" groups to spring up like the Falun Gong. I was astonished to find them in Hong Kong, practicing quite openly and asking for money.

Other groups I encountered were focused on the plight of children in China born with a cleft lip and palate - something that the government would rather not talk about. We've found as part of our mature democratic systems that single issue groups have sprung up in the wake of major political parties. It looks like single issue groups in China are springing up prior to major political parties.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

I'm surprised one who is so set against the Marxist Feinians would be so coddling of the Chinese Marxists.

I'm not coddling them. Hong Kong is not an example of Marxism, it is an example of laissez faire capitalism. Whether you like it or not.

Ivan

[Ironword]

Other groups I encountered were focused on the plight of children in China born with a cleft lip and palate - something that the government would rather not talk about.

While it might have been a different group, I'll post a link for the Operation Smile people.

[Austin Willard Wright]

So someone who does honest free labor is a "slave." In making such as statement, you are insulting millions of people.

[Ironword]

I also added that I think one reason why IBM and other US firms are fighting these suits tooth and nail is that they figure that, in another 15-20 years or less, someone might use this as precedent to sue them for using laogai labor in the PRC.

A good point. But will the laogai be dismantled in 20 years, when the system has grown exponentially under the policy of "economic issues delinked from human rights issues"?

Perhaps, once again, only an unwanted and bloody war will ultimately end the debacle.

[Austin Willard Wright]

If Chinese products are junk, you are perfectly free not to buy them. Problem solved!