Republican aggresors grow skeptical of free trade

[Slade Wilson]

The US and china never engaged in free trade since china has manipulated their currency, among other things. There are so many factors here attributing it to free trade is just a facade

BTW a trade deficit is only a bad thing when it exceeds a certain percentage of the countries GDP. Since the total trade balance worldwide must equal 0, the idea a trade surpluss must be maintained is bullocks and impossible.

Its good that USA exports dollars for goods. We can always make more dollars and find ways to prop its value(see OPEC...)

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Slade Wilson
The US and china never engaged in free trade since china has manipulated their currency, among other things. There are so many factors here attributing it to free trade is just a facade

That's true. But one can say that corporations are free to move jobs to China. That's what people don't like. But true free trade is just a facade.

BTW a trade deficit is only a bad thing when it exceeds a certain percentage of the countries GDP. Since the total trade balance worldwide must equal 0, the idea a trade surpluss must be maintained is bullocks and impossible.

GDP doesn't mean everything people make it out to mean. There are better measure of how well you are doing like wages. Look at countries around the world with trade surpluses and it's obvious that trade surpluses increase wages.

Its good that USA exports dollars for goods. We can always make more dollars and find ways to prop its value(see OPEC...)

I wouldn't say always.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Arrian
That's the other thing: Imran's right about outsourcing being overblown.

My wife works in IS, ok? There has been some outsourcing done by our company. But not all that much, and frankly, given the problems that have been encountered, I'm not sure there will be much more.

The really funny part is when we starting paying Indians to come over to the US to help manage the Indians in India, and paid them normal American wages to do it (of course, given the cost of living here in CT).

-Arrian

So basically, no matter what happens, we end up winning.

[Barnabas]

The USA gets goods, the rest of the world gets green paper

How is the USA suffering? I think they are doing great

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Barnabas
The USA gets goods, the rest of the world gets green paper

How is the USA suffering? I think they are doing great

No the rest of the world gets jobs and cheaper imports if they do actually buy them, we get a bunch of cheap crap at Walmart, corporations make more profit, and the Chinese make out like bandits.

[Kuciwalker]

I think protectionism should be applied at the state, or even better, county level

[snoopy369]

Reverse Mercantilism

"You can have this worthless metal, as long as I get my cars and toys and electronics!"

[DinoDoc]

In an attempt to steer this away from stupid questions: Should China be able to buy into a company that provides software to the Pentagon to prevent Cyber-attacks as might be allowed in a free market system?

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Vesayen
Who said the U.S. had anything to do with developing penicillin? Certainly not I. However it was developed a handful of years after world war 1 ended, during a period when global trade had been seriously hampered and in a country which had many protectionist policies.

Likewise, the atomic bomb was developed when international trade was seriously hampered.

Serious advances were made in computing during world war 2 and lets not forget significant advances in radar, chemistry and electronics.


It was still a significant technological development, the point being, it occured when international trade was hampered.

Hampering international trade does not necessarily hamper technological development.

"Command economies don't produce cures for cancer" may well be true, but it does not follow that protectionist economies cannot.

Poor countries with a poor populace do not produce great technological advances and all command economies in our world were poor. This has no relevance to protectionism.

Technological advances occur because of war, more often than anything else, because there's a lot more incentive to innovate to the government during wartime... that is a force rather independent of trade, or of capitalism, or anything else really.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
In an attempt to steer this away from stupid questions: Should China be able to buy into a company that provides software to the Pentagon to prevent Cyber-attacks as might be allowed in a free market system?

Not if it will give a foreign government access to our government's security systems, no. That has nothing to do with 'free trade' but with security concerns for the state.

[DinoDoc]

It places a limit upon free trade though which is what this thread is about: limits on free trade. What sort of measures would you consider reasonable to assure yourself of your security in that matter?

On another matter: Should any measures be taken to protect the public from country that has been the source of several large safety recalls and shown no real willingness or possibly the ability to clean up its safety record or even to enforce the laws they have?

[Kuciwalker]

It places a limit upon free trade though which is what this thread is about : limits on free trade.

That's mindlessly broad. No one particularly cares about those kind of restrictions because they have very little economic impact.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Reverse Mercantilism

"You can have this worthless metal, as long as I get my cars and toys and electronics!"

That has actually been tried, and it didn't work out so great.

[Barnabas]

It didnt work for Spain (altough they mis-spent their gold in wars in foreign countries)

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Reverse Mercantilism

"You can have this worthless metal, as long as I get my cars and toys and electronics!"

It's more like "You can have this job, and I'll owe you money"