Is free trade really all that bad? That's what I want this thread to be about. I understand that many are against it (saying it isn't "fair trade") because it not only causes the exportation of jobs (outsourcing) but the jobs pay so much less in, say, Mexico, so the Mexicans are getting a raw deal. On the other hand, maybe this "race to the bottom" for wages/costs isn't all bad. The Mexicans get jobs, we get cheap goods, and it serves to (eventually) equal out the wage earnings worldwide. Sort of like an equilibrium being reached. We in America and Europe have long been the privelaged few, but maybe now it's going to equal out. There are many sides to this, and I'm hoping that with this thread we can discuss and learn more about it, rather than just spouting rhetoric. I don't claim to know a lot about the issue, though I'm not totally ignorant either...but I'd like to know more. Lets keep this civil, too, eh?
'Free trade' is bad beacause it leads to everything being decided by market forces. This means the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and there is no saftey net.
As soon as one person gets an advantage in a free trade system, they can reign down over all else and use this to boost everything for themselves. Free trade fucks over small businesses, and alows multinational supermarket chains to gorw. You cant honestly think this is a good thing????
Apparently people in here don't know what free trade is, because it's almost non-existant today. Free trade in the hands of an elite few is not fucking free trade, people. I am in favor of what free trade is SUPPOSED to be, but not as it supposedly exists today.
