Posted: 1/29/2008 4:29:22 PM EDT
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"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade." Karl Marx |
Just thought it was an interesting quote given that there have been a few debates here about whether or not free trade is good for the USA. I tend to think we have "too much of a good thing" with it. So it's interesting to see who else is a big backer of global free trade. Maybe he's wrong on this too though. |
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i agree with most marxist viewpoints, however im starting to believe that every economic system known to date has a shelf-life. Communism in China is near an end, after decades of isolationism they are now accepting the idea of private property and allowing some free trade. It's causeing a great expanse in their economy, i read a .edu report that it brought over 300,000 out of poverty. Thus creating great cultural and social change. However look at our Capitalist economy, it worked great dureing the 1940's dureing war time our economy really boomed. so did the people. now we have issues with social security and the medical needs of the nation. I feel these are the problems that will eventually cause capitalism to lapse into somthing else. what, i cannot predict. edit- free trade stratifies social classes wya too much, Marx's greatest contributions include the fact that the social elite less than 5% of our population own the means and modes of production, this creates the anomi problems. everychild is raised and told they can beocme anything, while in fact if they are born to the lowerclass or middleclass they have very great chances of staying in that class. The frustration created by not being able to thrive in society as promised while children causes these freaks of nature who thinks its alright to shoot all their coworkers, or at least aids in pushing people to crime. |
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If you think free trade is such a bad thing why do we export more and more jobs YET the unemployment rate is getting lower each year? What I'm wondering is: Where did our **** purchasing power go? Both my grandfathers raised three children while my grandmothers stayed at home and both lived in decent houses... WTF did all that go? |
Agreed. Free trade between two countries roughly equal in standard of living and way of life is a great thing for both, ie the US and Canada. Free trade between a turd world shithole and a first world country, ie the US and mexico, the US still has to be the welfare caseworker of the northern hemisphere  I was a huge freetrader before NAFTA, anything to get .gov out of the way, but like communism everything looks good on paper, not so good in practice. |
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I took a class titled international economics and finance about 2 years ago. The whole class was spent analyzing GDP, purchasing power parity, exchange rates, tariff changes and a bunch of other stuff from the perspectives for and against free trade. From what little I remember, the details get technical, but overall free trade is a great thing if it increases the standard of living for both parties. Everyone here bitches about how we lose jobs to foreign countries so we have all these Americans out of work and also about how all the immigrants are willing to work for nothing which drives down the wage for our people here. It also drives down the cost of goods for the general population, and if the positive benefit from a decrease in cost of goods overshadows the negative ills of losing the jobs and driving down the wage, then the free trade should be allowed. Also, if the people losing their jobs to foreigners overseas aren't happy, then they should get retrained in a different skill to provide more income for their household. |
So the Free Traders are the commies then and I've been the conservative all along! 
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I think you're the antagonized/duped into supporting the "social revolution" part. |
Can't be, I'm not the proletariat. |
Then it should be good for you. Make you stronger and them weaker. |