The notion of 'Free Trade' is nifty.
The reality of 'Free Trade' is like the Powerball - a tax on the mathematically illiterate.
Most readers of this blog are old enough to remember when Ross Perot warned us all about the giant sucking sound. I listened to that statement made live - and in the years since, the giant sucking sound has become a tinnitus - ever-present in our ears as our economy was gutted.
The Citadel concept is not a brilliant and new idea. Like-minded people moving into proximity of one another, building the ties of community, building the infrastructure needed to make the community self-sufficient and safe in all respects. That is the same model our Founders, Framers and business leaders had for the first 175 years of the republic. It is called common sense.
Since the 1940s American 'Leaders' have been walking away from that common sense. Today we suffer for that reality - and most of those who betrayed us live in wealth most of us simply can't comprehend.
The response by Americans? Most simply remain in the pot as the temperature rises. There is a subset, most self-identify as 'Patriots', who screech and wring their hands, bouncing from 'let's decorate the lamp posts' to 'we can't do anything, MUST keep the 'moral high ground'. In this inaction even these proponents of change join their countrymen in the boiling pot.
Inaction is a course of action, folks. Own it.
America is on a course that will end in absolute subjugation and the death of Liberty, or war of such brutality and loss of life as this world has not seen.
Since subjugation is not an option...
...la Terreur.
Enemies of Liberty are ruthless. To own your Liberty, you'd better come harder than your enemies..
"Free Trade" has always been about empowering corporations to maximize profits, at the expense of the labor and consumer sectors.
ReplyDelete"Balanced Trade" is what we need - a trade policy that puts our economy as a whole - workers, consumers, and companies - just a bit ahead of the interests of other nations. But for that to work, our domestic economic policy must *also* be to maintain a balance between the worker, the company, and the consumer.
Or, in other words, a real open and competitive domestic market, from end to end...something we haven't had in the United States since about 1930.
/LT
"'Balanced Trade' is what we need - a trade policy that puts our economy as a whole -"
DeleteI'm not writing anything too serious here since K found it necessary to protect you from my last reply. I don't bother if the comments may not show. But still, in case he lets this one through, I gotta commend you...that line is really a hoot!
Way to brighten a holiday weekend, so thanks. Maybe next week you'll tell us how after you figure out the right and balanced trade policy for the whole economy--WHOOIIEEE!!--you propose to instantiate it. Sounds like a neat trick. Do we all need it, or just some of us?
Nothing personal, but y'all have lost your minds. It's a fine example of how justice is dished out by reality, not people.
JK: I did not 'protect' him, he doesn't need it. Nor did I choose not to publish any of your comments - if it isn't here, it didn't make it through to me. My blog gets a LOT of manipulation from Bad People, and comments not making it through to me are, sadly, far too common. Ask LT - it happens to him frequently.
DeleteSend it, I'll post it. You aren't one of the spineless 'Anonymous' commentors who hurl gratuitously then run and hide - you don't get shut down. - K
JK -
ReplyDelete"Free Trade", in its true and valid form, can only be pursued among equals. When a person in China is my equal in the eyes of the law and we have a shared social standard, then great.
Until then, having a tariff to counterbalance the predominant social and financial inequalities at a national level is reasonably appropriate...