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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (4050)	8/7/2006 10:42:55 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224700

however, workers would like their welfare to at least be considered when those agreements are negotiated. What exactly would that mean in practice? but when your job evaporates and you can no longer afford to educate your children, suddenly the negative realities of globalization hit those Americans who can least afford to cope with them. The same thing applies to the person who's job evaporates when some form of trade barrier goes up. Or to the people who don't get jobs, or get lousy jobs because of trade restrictions or to all the people who struggle to afford lower quality goods at higher prices because there is less competition. Its easier to point to the people harmed by foreign competition, a plant closes and people lose their jobs. (Of course the plant might have closed anyway but they still make good "poster-children" for those against free trade.) They are easy to identify. Its harder to point to people who are harmed by trade restrictions but the harm is just as real and its normally greater. People lose their jobs not just due to foreign competition but also do to many other things that increase productivity. A process gets automated and now takes 1/10th the number of workers (maybe making 50% more each). Those who lose their jobs in such situations sometimes have problems getting new ones. They sometimes have kids and they sometimes go through a lot of pain because of the job loss. But trade restrictions as a way of dealing with the problem is no more a good idea than the original "sabotage" (the term from people who through their sabots (wooden shoes) in to machines that they saw as taking away their jobs). And in the long run no more useful than the candle makers petition - bastiat.org