Free Trade vs. Protectionism

[The Conquistador]

Originally Posted by GRH

I must admit that I'm pretty uneducated about the merits of each. I've heard the author of a book called "Free Trade Doesn't Work" give a speech on C-Span2 before.

That's the problem. Read some Van Mises's works or Milton Friedman's work before you go any further.

[GRH]

I'm familiar with comparative advantage to some extent. Like how advantageous it is for companies to outsource all their labor to China, where things can be produced for slave wages. Sure, it gives us the advantage of cheap goods...But no manufacturing jobs. So we get a "service economy." And of course our "free trade" with China isn't really free, as China has tariffs on American goods.

I'd rather China let their yaun appreciate 15% than have tariffs. But outside of China taking action, I think we should.

[The Conquistador]

China is the least part of our problem. Sure, they may put tariffs on our goods but alot of the problem stems from us. Americans need to level the playing field with foreign labor. You can't do that when your government mandates that businesses pay a worker 10 times the market value for unskilled labor.

Labor regulations, unions, minimum wage and business taxes are what's fucking us over right now and if you get rid of those, we'd have most of the battle won. Most of these regulations are just influenced by larger businesses to stifle competition anyways.

If this was truly about jobs, there would be a massive cutback on labor saving machinery so that there would be more manual labor jobs. But that is not what it is about. The so called "lack of jobs" that Americans are quite simply(and justifiably) unwilling about working a shitty paying job.

The real reason the US is losing out is because of domestic policies that have little to do with international trade. Think ADA, over regulation of all industries, Equal Opportunity employment, subsidies, unions, OSHA, etc. Labor costs are just one small fraction of the whole equation. Try opening a paint factory in the US right now, and see what you are up against. Taxes, licensing, and zoning restrictions would bury you before the first gallon of waste is poured into the river.