10 questions about “free trade” that you can’t answer…
Any thoughts on this?
Outlaw,
I answer these questions: Unfair Free Trade.
Thanks man
Jonathan, you addressed point #3, when you need not have.
#3 was a case of “When did you stop beating your wife?” fallacy from the other side. The flow of American jobs to China never happened. James Jackson’s regular reports on international trade and investment have shown that investment in manufacturing in US and other countries follows the trend of much more investment happening in rich Western nations and much less happening in China. China has less manufacturing investment internally or from abroad than Japan or Canada do.
You yourself have demonstrated quite well in these forums that huge capitalization in western corporations means that they earn more per worker, which also helps them to hire more workers. Ford is more capitalized than Chinese manufacturer Geely is, earns more per worker than Geely does, and yet, Ford has 90,000 domestic workers and Geely has roughly 20,000.
I am just saying this, because you don’t need to argue on their terms, or argue on the false premises that they set. The claim that American jobs are going to China is the biggest black-faced lie of our times. American manufacturers build more factories on Dutch or Belgian soil or use them as a supply chain more often than they do with China - nobody ever complained about Dutch or Belgian people stealing American jobs. A lie, a lie, and a lie.
One of my favorite topics of “free trade” and “fair trade” is the topic of labor economics: wages, demographics, etc. One of my undergrad professors has written about labor economics, and she and I actually took up an entire class period discussing how the barriers to the movement of labor are as much an impact on trade as any tax or subsidy.
It almost makes me wish I were back in university completing my undergrad. Almost.