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November 21, 2007
Trade: Why Don't People Get it?
... free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.
-- Thomas Babbington Macaulay (1824)
The following is the most depressing survey result you will read in some time:
The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted earlier this month found that 60% of voters nationwide agreed with the statement that "foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy."
Admittedly, trade affects different people in the U.S. (or in any country) to different degrees. But the notion that trade that isn't good in every way for everyone must be bad, and that protectionism is therefore required -- and the current political candidates pandering to that latter view -- makes me sick to my stomach.
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Yeah, it's sad. We need someone to just step up and say: your $25 american eagle polo would cost $100 without trade, and your $500 flatscreen would cost $2000.
Is that free trade or foreign trade? They may be more astute than you credit them.
One of the biggest problems free trade supporters face is that the benefits of globalisation are seen to go to a small elite. The elite tends to also want the ugly sister of free trade - free movement of labour - because how else do we find people to pick these fruit trees etc? The majority are supposed to be happy with ever cheaper DVD players from China.