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Today's Poll: Do you support free trade?

By Howard B. Owens
Dave Olsen

Free trade would be a good thing, for everyone. But, like you pointed out in the comments of yesterday's poll, Howard, it's probably not possible. Too many countries, including us insist on protectionism.

Jul 20, 2010, 8:48am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Dave, what I was saying yesterday that when a country isn't a democracy, governed by the rule of law, and itself an open market with free, equal economic opportunity for all its people, then we're not trading on an equal basis, which makes free trade a farce. An unbalanced market is not a free market.

Jul 20, 2010, 9:04am Permalink
Dave Olsen

Well, I'm just a big dumb country boy, not an economist. I understand what you are saying, I don't want to support sweatshops, and child labor etc. or dictators. I am also beginning to understand that protectionist policies that may save some jobs in America, cost us others. Surely the fact that wealthy American industries buy politicians who then vote for policies that protect select industries at the cost of others. That's not free trade either. This is a good article by a Princeton Professor of Economics, he's a lot smarter on this than me. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/FreeTrade.html

Jul 20, 2010, 11:10am Permalink
Michael Nichols

Free trade is not free. It's costing us millions of jobs. How many factory's left this country to go over seas and use their cheap labor. We should export as much as we import.

Jul 20, 2010, 6:45pm Permalink
Ken Rumble

Free trade would be good if the wage and price scale were the same,it's not. Want the recession and unemployment to end in the USA? Force Wally World to buy manufactured in AMERICA. Not American owned companies producing in foreign countries for cheap labor and even cheaper materials! If it is sold in the USA it should be manufactured here, if not a price equalization tax should be applied. Shop at Wally World and keep supporting China, their economy is doing well.

Jul 20, 2010, 6:50pm Permalink

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