The Costs of Free Trade

Call it my populist moment.

Forrest Research estimates that these will be the top 10 jobs in demand over the next decade:

1. Waiters and waitresses
2. Janitors and cleaners
3. Food preparation
4. Nursing aides and orderlies
5. Cashiers
6. Customer Service Representatives
7. Retail salespersons
8. Registered nurses
9. General or Operational managers
10. Postsecondary teachers

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• free
• trade
• nafta
• cafta
• Pat
• Buchanan
• Lou
• Dobbs
• protectionism
• economic
• nationalism
• manufacturing
• paleocrat

[labulldog5]

I just had a great idea, paleoradio should devote a segment called "the benefits of free trade!" As much as it might feel like pins are being run through your body, it might give your listeners a more accurate picture of the issue. You hint in this video of the beneifts, why not elaborate on them, as you have done w/ costs? There's plenty to be shared on the benefits side. It would be interesting for sure.

[paleocrat]

That sounds like a plan. I could talk about getting manufactures and textiles off our backs, allowing us to be a service economy. I could talk about the spike in employment in Mexico and Bangalore. I could talk about the luxuries of Walmart and cheap goods. I could even talk about helping out our Communist friends over in China. But I don't think these are the benefits you are getting at. :)

[paleocrat]

My program is an advocacy program. I allow callers to balance out my positions on various matters. I speak my mind, give my opinion, and let the chips fall where they may.

My program is not a news broadcast. I am not dedicated to "he said / she said" journalism. I am not bound by the fairness doctrine, though I allow people I criticize or ideas I hammer to be defended by people on the program or on the phone.

[labulldog5]

You have completely ignored the economic impact of the past 13 years or so since NAFTA, which as you know has been a time of rapid de-regulation of int'l trade, with the economy grown 50%, avg unemployment at 5% (compared to 7.1% before), and manufacturing output up 63%! Is this due to trade, or in spite of it? You MUST consider all data, to accurately analyze trade impact. This is one thing I'll be looking for in the book, and esp for some new NTT or model you keep talking about.

[paleocrat]

I haven't ignored numbers since NAFTA. Even in this video I say that there have been benefits, but that I think they are short-term and short-sighted. I should have said narrow-minded due to their inability to take serious the other factors of value I have mentioned elsewhere.

NAFTA? The trade agreement regulated by multi-nationals in the WTO? The blatantly unconstitutional trade agreement?

We have discussed output elsewhere. I won't do so again. At least not here and now.

[labulldog5]

You have cited, as Pat does, American protectionism as a shining example of the benefits of nationalism. But raw stats are worthless, without comparative analysis and a theory from to draw conclusions. For example, you must compare that to other times of high tariffs, and then compare THOSE to times of low tariffs, and see if there is a correlation to growth, price level, etc. And even if you do that, this still doesn't necessarily prove causation, and so you must have an analytical model.

[paleocrat]

Pat does this. He compares the "then and now" in every book that he deals with the issue. He deals with it in The Great Betrayal, Where the Right Went Wrong, and Day of Reckoning.

[stealthswimmer]

I do think Walmart is a benefit. That's my personal view. It helps lots of poor people.

[MrBuyUSA]

Look at all these comment.. Do any of you come from working class families? Do any of you still have grandparents left, that maybe retired from GM? Some people, just don't live in the same world. Some folks are just sheltered, and naive intellectuals.. All of the factories are closed here.. If we all go back to school, where are we going to all work? Will a masters degree become worthless?

[baigandine]

@stealthswimmer Poor people who would not be so poor but for Walmart.

[baigandine]

What we have with China is not free trade, unfortunately.

[rocksiphone]

What jobs did Free Trade Provide? ,Working at McDonalds? Free Trade Destroyed all manufacturing in the United States which was the back bone of our country. Free Trade put millions out of jobs. Americans cannot compete with Slave Labor. We need tarriffs to bring back manufacturing. How could anyone in their Right Mind say Tarriffs will hurt us, unless your not American. Just look at what Free Trade did to America.

[migkillertwo]

I'm genuinely curious as to how protectionism will in any way help the general public. Sure, it might help some very specific parts of the economy (manufacturing), nobody could possibly deny that. But why care only about one specific sector and force other parts of the economy, parts which provide people with jobs and salaries?

[Userduder]

Actually the only thing which I have seen which has experienced deflation is computers, and computers aren't made with cheap foreign labor but in the good old USA or other 1st world countries. Everything else has experienced normal inflation, well except recently imported oil is real expensive, duh.

[mujaku]

Read Ha-Joon Chang article, *Kicking away the ladder: an unofficial history of capitalism, especially in

Britain and the United States*. Yes, protective and revenue tariffs work (and lower taxes)--history says so, not abstractions.

[labulldog5]

Hi paleo, the journey through the great betrayal is slow going, mostly because of Spanish comps coming up for school. However, I've come across a point that so far hasn't been appeared so far in the free/fair trade war. I may have mentioned it before but didn't elaborate, and that is the theory of value being used by the fair traders. In order for fair trade to work, as Buchanan is speaking of, some kind of intrinsic value needs to be accepted, which quite frankly, doesn't make much sense to me.