Free Trade, Vietnam Documentary, Blog Lists
Now, how about using some of that capitalism to open up full trade relations with Cuba? If it is a good idea to engage China, and I certainly think it is, why not the smaller, closer, more tourist-friendly Cuba? Too controversial in Florida politics maybe? North Carolina tobacco and Florida sugar wouldn't like it?
In other news, (possibly prompted by coverage of the death of William Westmoreland) I decided that this would be a good night to embark on watching the classic American Experience documentary Vietnam: A Television History. I've seen bits and pieces before, but now I'm going to tackle the entire 11 hours sequentially. After that, I want to read Stanley Karnow's companion book to the TV series (or did the book come first and then the series?) So if I'm a little tired at work tomorrow...
Finally, plenty of blogs listed at Technorati's Top 100, Blog Universe, and the 2004 Weblog Awards.
posted by KaneCitizen at 9:54 PM
2 Comments:
My issue with "free trade" is that it really isn't. Until the worker from bangalore can pull up stakes and move to the U.S. and compete on the same level for my wage and vice versa free trade is nothing more than a corporate ponzi scheme.
Its one of those things that only works in the abstract. This is, of course why libertarians love it (their arguments always seem to begin with "If we assume...").
For instance, I love how the Cato institute folks talk about Walmarts dealings with China as the free market at work - cheaper goods is always good for the US. But this is actually a result of a very anti-free-market policy.
The deal they have with china would not be nearly as sweet if china wasn't artificially pegging its currency to the dollar (although there appears to be some movement on that today).
This affects not only china but the entire SE asian region which has them as a trading partner.
If we had free movement of workers salaries would flatten in a way that would be much more just to all parties considered. I would argue without it we are headed toward an economic collapse once the "haves" unemployment rate and wages are such that they don't have the resources to keep the economic engine going and the "have nots" aren't yet in a position to pick up the slack.
Hey, you suck!
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