Frank,
On your request for some discussion of free trade, I have a few very unthought out thoughts.
1. The term "free trade" is an ideological construct. It's always hard to debate such constructs since the point of their construction is to (a) conceal rather than reveal and (b) as such they carry little evidence with them.
2. Liberalizing trade rules in any given industry or across all trade items for one country produces a matrix that's hard to evaluate in terms of goods and bads. Given the fact that the Bush administration is completley in bed with the large global companies (check appointments to almost any branch of government) and the Clinton administration was almost as bad (though their labor constituencies kept them ever so slightly more honest--I don't mean labor is right--I only mean the Clinto folk at least listened to them) it's hard to get a good reading of what any specific policy proposal to liberalize trade will do.
3. Much discussion about free trade, as befits an ideological construct, does not say what sort of benefits, at least in any concrete way, are likely to accrue to which populations. A good, serious discussion would be helped by that kind of specificity.
4. Much has been made of the textile industry. I think you said prices would be lower for American consumers with liberalized trade. Let's say that assessment of benefit is accurate. How do you balance that against the job loss in the American textile industry? What should be done about those folk, many of whom won't or can't move, couldn't get other jobs if they did so? Should either the government or some of the companies who benefit from trade liberalization be asked to do something for these workers? Etc., etc.
5. On the general claim, that "free trade" produces a much better globe, are we talking about more than very large corporations having much larger playing fields in which to roam? In what sense would that benefit those world citizens who are increasingly worse off over the past two decades, at least relative to the better off?
Well, let's see if I've done enough to get LindyBill to his computer keyboard!
John |
