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"Free trade"
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
i have only recently begun to look into the sinister underbelly of politics, which is far more interesting than the mainstream propaganda, and free trade is one of those misleading terms that had me fooled for a while.........the rhetoric sounds nice but what the WTO really does is hand over power to the big corporations to do what they like with little or no regulation, and force already poor countries into further poverty by telling them how to run their countries........
nationalistic ideals are poo-pooed, although it clearly worked for countries like Japan in the 70's, where foreign investment was discouraged (this practice is now illegal)........free trade is supposed to reduce poverty, whereas in reality it doesn't redistribute wealth at all, it allows western companies to come along and undermine nations' domestic economies, making the fat cat fatter, its sickening really......why does Britain champion free trade? because we're bastards.
nationalistic ideals are poo-pooed, although it clearly worked for countries like Japan in the 70's, where foreign investment was discouraged (this practice is now illegal)........free trade is supposed to reduce poverty, whereas in reality it doesn't redistribute wealth at all, it allows western companies to come along and undermine nations' domestic economies, making the fat cat fatter, its sickening really......why does Britain champion free trade? because we're bastards.
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we want big overstocked cheap priced goods on our supermarket shelves in season or out of season ...in fact even seasonal has become a reduntant term as far as food goes ...
we live with privatisation of everything on the planet ...companies are monstorous in size ...often being worth more than the country they operate in.
we can't even have much say over our rubbish collection any longer as it's fucking spanish!
rice farmers can't farm rice cos american super cheap rice has flooded the market ...it's all gone tits up i tell yea.
mamon rules ...cos we encourage it. we have been brainwashed to encourage it but surely ...it just can't last?
surely it will all collapse around our short sighted greedy little grubby hands and stoney hearts ... i'm rambling.
I believe that Western nations are fearful of true free trade as it would cost jobs in their economies. Think of it! If goods were cheaper from some African country, would you pay more for the same quality goods which came from a first world nation?!
and of course this gives the US and UK a convenient pretext to carry on invading at will.......its all linked together, and it all makes me sick.........to the point where im questioning if i can live in a 'developed' country with my conscience intact.........im dead serious.
Are you against free trade? Or you think that WTO, IMF etc are not real supporters of free trade?
This is what I think. Free trade is a myth.
Like that's relevant to international trade and finance. :rolleyes:
Your other mistake, “all it does is benefit the already rich western economies at the expense of developing countries ”. This is just impossible. Free trade benefits both sides and protectionism harms both sides as well. People of Western countries are harmed by protectionist policy as well as people in developing countries. Only governments and special interests have profit from protectionism( though it is discussible even in the case of special interests. I think they lose in long run too)
This protectionism-monopoly issue is one of the most curious delusions foisted on public opinion by Marxist and Keynesian economists. The fact is that any monopoly and cartel is created by State ( that itself is the most powerful monopoly, the monopoly on aggressive violence) and it can’t work at free market conditions. Every practised businessman knows that market can’t be monopolised, this is the same as to try to keep air in a cage but professors of mainstream economics ( who are not able to run a bakery and who are paid by govt) are convinced in the opposite.
The WTO is not for free trade at all, it is actually against free trade. It does not allow the governments and the peoples of those countries ot decide their own wages and their own buying and selling terms; it imposes them. It's effectively protectionism- the interests of the Western governments are protected.
Free trade in its ideological sense will help to eradicate poverty, as there would be no dominant protected interests. If the African coffee farmers wanted a better deal, they would just not sell their coffee (thereby harming the purchaser) until they got one. Of course, the ideological ideal is flawed, given that people are not individual actors and will band together to get a greater bargaining position, but free trade as an ideal can and would help eradicate third world poverty.
Doling money out to the Third World doesn't work either; as has been shown on numerous occasions, the Third World countries just go out and buy guns with it. Take Ethiopia- starving population, well-equipped army and air force, long-running expensive war with Eritrea. Giving them more moneuy doesn't work, and giving them aid doesn't work because the army just goes in and seizes it.
Third World poverty is oging to be imposible to eradicate, unless the defnition of poverty is changed. Which is what Blair is trying to do.
they are fighting against subsidised 'free' trade but it's very easy to loose sight of it all.
Any monopoly and cartel is created by the state? What the fuck?
What the hell are you on about?
What will stop people with similar interests banding together? Never heard of the Medelin Cartel? The illegal drugs trade is as near to a free market as we currently have, and you don't think monopolies and cartels exist?
Are you on crack?
Aye, and there's the rub. There will always be dominant protected interests.