Ouch My Head Hurts!

Free trade: Is it ever a bad Idea?

First off, I am not an economist. On the other hand I am not an idiot either. I have worked for decades in the physical science field and can smell bad logic a mile away.

But the question is free trade not science.

The history of this country is the history of change. We started as agrarian then evolved into old style industry (rail roads, mining and steel). Then we abandoned the iron horse for the automobile. WWII made us the arsenal of democracy. After WWII we did electronics and we were the gods of international trade. The world shopped at our doorstep and life was good.

Then things went horribly wrong (or good depending on your view point). The Japanese showed up at the party. It turned out that our heavy industry was bloated, greedy and inefficient. We fell like wheat before a scythe. My hometown had been a heavy industry center for over 100 years, and then the two main employers closed their doors. Mining, smelting and milling metal was the force that created the town, now it was gone. Life was no longer good. The area will never experience the same level of prosperity again. The years of mining and heavy industry have left the area with a legacy of pollution and cancer. Over the last 30 years the area has recovered some what (a large medical center is now the main employer).

The history of my home town is the history of this country. We went from heavy industry to a service economy. The only thing we make now is food. But productivity gains in agriculture means there is little employment in the agribusiness.

So if the service industry starts to telecommute from India, what are we supposed to do for a living. Is a downward spiraling life style all that is left for us. There are to many of us to return to subsistence farming.

What I would like from the free trade proponents is a straight answer to a couple of question. And I do mean a real answers not a party line quote and not the mindless mantra chant of “protectionism is bad”

Question #1: If you don’t make anything and you don’t service anything how am I supposed to avoid become a starving homeless derelict.

Question #2: If china uses poverty stricken peasants (with dollar a day wage) and political prisoners to manufacture the goods (then denies them basic human rights) how can I possibly compete?

Question #3: If china dumps raw sewage and toxic waste into their rivers, how am I supposed to compete fairly (with out killing my self).

Question #4: If china keeps their currency artificially pegged low (relative to the dollar) won’t their products always be cheaper?

Question#5: If productivity keeps increasing and you need fewer and fewer people to supply the goods to the rest of us what can the rest of us do but become wards of the state.

Believe it or not I am NOT in favor of protectionism. But unless I can get a serious set of answers to my serious questions I am going to switch sides!

Is there a god?

I don’t know. But if he exists then the evidence is very clear that he is either indifferent to our plight, actively enjoying our suffering, finds our pain useful or is powerless to effectively influence events in our world.

What argument could possibly be made (either morally of pragmatically) to justify the horrific suffering the human race has endured for millennium. If god (the creator) walked the earth today he would be arrested for “crimes against humanity”.

To make a race of being, then just abandon them to the vicious barbarianism of their animal nature is unconscionable. Crucifying the occasional holy man doesn’t qualify as a legitimate intervention. Not when the resulting scripture is vague, contradictory, poorly translated and open to so many interpretations that every one-dog town in the world has a dozen radically different sects of the same religion.

To create a world were deformity, mental defect, plagues and parasites make life a living hell cannot be rationalized in any theology. What possible reason could be given to bring a child into this world burdened with physical and mental afflictions? What sin could a child have committed to warrant starving to death or dying of diarrhea and dehydration? (The most common cause of child mortality in the third world is dehydration caused by diarrhea.)

Would we accept any of the excuses organized religion gives us if a politician was saying them? Imagine what would happen if a modern American president of either party started spewing such platitudes. Consider the following religious cliché and my modern rewording of them.

1) The original sin of Adam is the reason for your suffering: Your father committed a felony so you and all your children will be imprisoned and tortured.
2) Yield your will up to god and be free: Just be a mindless obedient slave and I will stop punishing you.
3) Who are you to question your creator: They are my children; I can beat them to death if I want to.
4) It’s all just part of gods plan: Poverty, unemployment and homelessness are part of my plan to save the country.
5) Your time on this planet is just a test: You will be imprisoned without trial for the rest of your life in a horrible place. If you behave we may take mercy on you and send you somewhere else. But you don’t get to see the new place before we send you there. Also nobody you know has ever come back from there.