I have to admit being of two minds on this. I don't feel like an authority (because I'm not) but this is how I'm thinking about this at the moment.

Free trade only seems sustainable if conditions on the playing field are fair. I remember all the trade dumping that Japan used to do. Whereas we shouldn't protect ourselves against honest competition, we have to admit that this competition will lead to an averaging out of a global median standard of living. Americans are not immune to being slapped by Adam Smith's invisible hand just because they were born and/or live in a country that currently provides them with a standard of living most of the people in competing countries only dream about after seeing glimpse of it on their televisions. I think that it should be considered fair to place demands on exporters to this country who externalize their manufacturing cost to the environment or produce their goods through rank exploitation. This is not only to combat unfair trade practices that cost American jobs, but this kind of behavior constitutes the kinds of injustice that makes all our lives less than they should be. If one really wants to play on an open field like 'free trade' it means that one has to be more savy, not less. Too often I feel that self-proclaimed free traders are really only out to increase the profit margin for shareholders and boards in the near term, especially when a fair amount of the labor used to produce the profits they recieve has been outsourced offshore. I don't think I can trust a Free Trader unless that person also has a solild track record on issues of honest governence. These days, I have a hard time pointing to anyone like that, unfortunately. We should all start thinking about who wants to govern and who is just out to rule. Character really does matter, as does intellect and a proper vision of what the future could look like, one way or the other.

It would really be nice to have a world where every country dealt fairly with another, but if you're going to hold your breath and wait for that time, best of luck.

If a country wants to "dump" on us, I say, let 'em. Japanese steel didn't kill the American steel industry. Our labor priced itself out of the market. I've had a dozen friends, a brother-in-law, a grandfather and two cousins working in steel at any one time and I'll tell you what, it's hard to make a profit when you're paying $58/hr in wages & benefits compared with $30/hr in Japan and $15/hr in Korea. Would I have loved to have seen all my relatives go on making the big bucks? Sure. But only my brother-in-law is doing so as of this writing.

Simply put, Americans have to clean up their own house first. No more corporate welfare for exporters. Our products either make it on their own merits, or they don't. Giving taxpayer dollars to GM or Quaker Oats to sell product overseas is a terrific waste of capital. Let's deal with the countries that want FAIR trade, not some bizzare patchwork of protectionist this and free-trade that. We have nothing to fear from competing on the world market, and everything to gain.

Bush is, in the area of foreign trade, a retrograde after Clinton. In that respect, the US might have just as well elected Dick Gephardt.

Don't get me wrong, no one's happier that Dick will never see the Oval Office, but George 43's got a remarkably democratic streak when it comes to protectionist trade practices. I expected better from him, but what he's done with steel price supports is nothing more than pandering for votes with taxpayer money.

Ben Franklin said no country was ever harmed by free trade and that's 100% correct to this day. There is nothing wrong with turning a profit, or bringing home something for the stockholders, and you don't have to break laws or Commandments to do it. Hundreds of companies do it now, and more would if only government would get out of the way.

Toopedo_eight,

I tend to agree with what you're saying, except for expecting more from Bush. The cost of a commodity, such as labor or raw materials will vary from spot to spot. The steel industry was done in here by a combination of high wages and dumping by overseas competators. I was thinking more about televisions, where there was a concerted effort by producers like Sony and Mashusta to produce TVs (which were in fact a superior product than their Zenith et al couterparts in terms of market potential) and sold them at under production costs in a predatory manner.

Steel is a material that is barely manufactured, a raw material in itself. I am closer to your position than you think. However, most of the anit-labor rhetoric that I have heard verges on corporate propaganda. It was not the unions who decided what the absurd crap that passed for American manufactured cars, (for a narrow example) all through the mid 60's to present would be. Stand at a street corner and look at cars go by some time. The American brands still look off the competative mark and if you select the 5 to 7 year old cars you come to the conclusion that the UAW had to play on a pretty shitty team. My Dad had a friend that had a Nissan still running at 250,000 miles in the mid 80's. We all thought that it was impossible (sure it was rusted, but he lived in Michigan). It's the same old story everywhere. I have a French friend who told me he couldn't believe that stores still sold ranges with the old electric coil resistence burners. He claims that the low end in Europe has been sealed ceramic for as long as he could remember. Which would you really rather own, a Maytag or a Siemens dish washer?

There was an old joke about the first introduction of CAFE standards, Tokyo hired 50 engineers to meet them while Detroit hired 50 Lawyers. I didn't think it was funny then and I think it is less funny today.

As far as getting the Government out of the way, there is a proper place for Government, to provide for the Welfare of the people. Government(s) should set ground rules that everyone abides by, good government does this well, bad government does it the way too many American Governments have done it and is doing it more than ever during this administration. You DO NOT redistribute wealth in a society upwards! You do keep an eye towards attempting to even the starting line out by using some of societies productivity towards nurturing the next generations of consumers, employees, and most important, citizens. The fiscal policies of the Bush administration is amazingly stupid. The only way fiscal policy can ever be effective is when it is directed at influencing aggragate demand. Stalinism and Fascism were both attempts by the Government to get involved in the production side of the equation for the benifit of the elete (the real elete, not the people the country club republicans like Rove want to brand elete, Kenny BoyLay would be an elete trying to make descissions for you, especially if you lived in CA two years ago). Trick-L down smells like fascism to me. When you say, 'no more welfare for exporters." you should extend that to the upper reaches of the income brackets. There is no one who benefits from what taxation provides nearly as much as the wealthy. A poor person who is on 100% support is still not close to Bill gates in terms of the amount of support taxes have provided. Bill would probably tell you this is true. The wealthy need so much to make the money that they are increasingly not taxed on. They need an educated workforce and consumer base, roads and infrastructure, a military and police force to protect their assets, etc. etc. etc. The poor 'welfare cheat' doesn't need nearly this much, she's two steps from the wilderness as it is.

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