Free Trade vs. Protectionism

[transjen]

When you ask the question "Where are all the jobs?" the answer is eight years of free trading W sending all our job overseas, Free trade in theroy sounds grand but in reality only benfits big bussiness by cutting cost for them and seeing jobs leave here and pop up in India and China and South America
NAFTA, CAFTA and all of W's free trading only gave us a royal
Jerseygirl Jen

[The Conquistador]

Originally Posted by transjen

When you ask the question "Where are all the jobs?" the answer is eight years of free trading W sending all our job overseas, Free trade in theroy sounds grand but in reality only benfits big bussiness by cutting cost for them and seeing jobs leave here and pop up in India and China and South America
NAFTA, CAFTA and all of W's free trading only gave us a royal
Jerseygirl Jen

Protectionism rarely works and tends to hurt the very people it tries to help. The best example is Great Depression. It should have only been a market bubble but when the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was passed, it just drove the economy deeper into the ground and made it that much harder to recover from. Also, look at the amount of progress the Auto Workers Union has brought to Detroit and all the wonderful things protectionism have done for them.

"Comparative Advantage" is the word of the day.

With that said, free trade only works if the countries you are dealing with also have a free trade policy and if your country actually has something to offer to other countries. Consumption and production are two entirely different things.