Forum Post: Great piece: The Real Cost Of “Free Trade”
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 24, 2011, 10:18 p.m. EST by looselyhuman
(3117)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
http://economyincrisis.org/content/real-cost-%E2%80%9Cfree-trade%E2%80%9D
Why have we let disastrous so-called “free trade” destroy so many American freedoms?
Free trade should be more accurately 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.
Proponents of free trade justify their position by saying free trade is supplying American consumers with access to the lowest cost, most competitive market. However, this does not justify the terrible consequences of free trade. Proponents dismiss the destruction to American domestic production by wishfully thinking that we will find new ways to reinvent ourselves. How will we continue to pay for these cheap foreign goods with no industry to generate our own wealth?
“Free trade” proponents fail to say that free access to subsidized foreign production is destroying America's chances to be competitive.
Foreign companies have advantages that American companies do not have including subsidies, low cost labor, and protected home markets. Free trade agreements are impossible for the U.S. to enforce in other countries. China has consistently manipulated its currency for 10 years without reprisal. Foreign penetration of the Japanese auto market hovers around 1 percent vs. 56 percent foreign penetration in America.
We are depending on the goodwill of other countries and blindly hoping they play by the rules. Like a shopkeeper who places blind faith in the “honor system” to prevent theft, we are assuming these other countries are fools if we assume they will not exploit our “anything goes” wide open markets and our inability to enforce trade agreements in their countries.
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Related: http://occupywallst.org/forum/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being/
There are many lies in the way globalism and "free" trade were marketted to the masses.
Sound bytes only say so much.
What I find interesting, is the fact that this episode clearly has an ending, and it is almost guaranteed to result in one of the most divisive conflicts in the history of humanity.
Not that there's anything humane about the 1% ers.
The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried six feet under.
America’s 20th century economic success was based on two things. Free trade was not one of them. America’s economic success was based on protectionism, which was ensured by the union victory in the Civil War, and on British indebtedness, which destroyed the British pound as world reserve currency. Following World War II, the U.S. dollar took the role as reserve currency, a privilege that allows the U.S. to pay its international bills in its own currency.
World War II and socialism together ensured that the U.S. economy dominated the world at the mid 20th century. The economies of the rest of the world had been destroyed by war or were stifled by socialism [in terms of the priorities of the capitalist growth model. Editors.]
The ascendant position of the U.S. economy caused the U.S. government to be relaxed about giving away American industries, such as textiles, as bribes to other countries for cooperating with America’s cold war and foreign policies. For example, Turkey’s U.S. textile quotas were increased in exchange for over-flight rights in the Gulf War, making lost U.S. textile jobs an off-budget war expense.
In contrast, countries such as Japan and Germany used industrial policy to plot their comebacks. By the late 1970s, Japanese auto makers had the once dominant American auto industry on the ropes. The first economic act of the “free market” Reagan administration in 1981 was to put quotas on the import of Japanese cars in order to protect Detroit and the United Auto Workers.- How the Economy was Lost, Doomed by the Myths of Free Trade by Paul Craig Roberts
http://economyincrisis.org/content/how-economy-was-lost-doomed-myths-free-trade
We don't have true free trade, so you're pointing the finger in the wrong direction.
If I may repeat
Geez, the 99% have been voting for outsourcing with their wallets for over 30 yrs. We have all shopped for price never looking at the MADE IN label. Seems the chickens have come home to roost. Increase minumum wage and further reduce demand for MADE IN THE USA. I have been watching this phenomenom for over 30 yrs as a victim of outsourcing from a Fortune 100 company, watching as we closed US plants and first relocated in Mexico and later moved to the Far East chasing the cheap labor countries.