>>When over 170,000 Americans are rendered unemployed in a single month(October) the logical conclusion follows that something is not working according to plan.<<
On this at least we can agree absolutely.
>>As the writer states, free trade might work if it were actually fair trade.<<
You are going to have to define "fair" for me here. If you mean "we in the US pay our people more than you do in your country, so it is fair that we slap a tariff on you if you want to sell into the US", then you and I have different views on the meaning of capitalism, let alone the meaning of the word "fair".
>>Large numbers of American companies closing doors plus high unemployment would lead all reasonable observers to the conclusion that free trade needs adjustments in some way.<<
Now this is where our views differ. I can think of many other reasons, apart from "free trade", that cause companies to close their doors and lay off their workers, but what I cannot do is say "that's the problem" without evidence. For example, there have been instances recently of egregious management behaviour in some US companies, but to use this as proof that "bad management causes 170,000 layoffs" would be illogical.
>>I've come to the conclusion your political sympathies lie with either the Democrats or Libertarian<<
I hope that you haven't come to this conclusion simply so that you can label me as an enemy, put me in a box marked "wet lefty" and ignore everything I write. That would be insulting to me and perhaps just a little bit of a cop-out for you. As it happens, no-one has ever applied either of those labels to me, nor have I been seen to embrace any particular academic theory, let alone "obstinately cling" to one. |
