Disappointing Article from Ron Paul

[swamprat]

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=228

Two weeks ago, both the administration and the Fed announced with straight faces that the
recession was over and the signs of economic recovery were clear. Then last week, the president
made a stunning decision that signals the administration’s determination to repeat the mistakes of
the Great Depression. Much like the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs that set off a global trade war and
effectively doomed us to ten more years of economic misery, Obama’s decision to enact steep tariffs
on Chinese imported tires could spark a trade war with the single most important trading partner we
have. Not only does China manufacture a whole host of products that end up on American store
shelves, they are also still buying our Treasury debt.
One has to wonder why this course of action is being undertaken if the administration really
believes its own statements about economic recovery. Why are they still trying to fix something they
have supposedly already fixed? The most troubling thing is the rhetoric about free trade given to
justify this. The administration claims it is merely enforcing trade policies and that this is necessary
for free trade. This sort of double speak demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of free trade,
economics and world history. Yet these are the same people the country trusts to solve our
problems. This sort of thing should remove all doubt about the credibility of the decision makers in
Washington.
The truth is this will hurt American consumers by driving up prices of tires and cars. This will also
complicate matters for our already crippled manufacturing and agricultural industries, if and when
China retaliates against US made products. Whatever jobs might be saved in the tire and steel
industries here as a result of this protectionist measure will likely be lost in other American
industries. It is even doubtful that those jobs will be saved, as cheap tires can be obtained from
other places like Mexico instead. It is difficult to see any real winners among all the losers where
trade wars are concerned. If Unions think this is beneficial to them, they are being penny-wise and
pound foolish.
Free trade with all and entangling alliances with none has always been the best policy in dealing
with other countries on the world stage. This is the policy of friendship, freedom and
non-interventionism and yet people wrongly attack this philosophy as isolationist. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Isolationism is putting up protectionist trade barriers, starting trade wars
imposing provocative sanctions and one day finding out we have no one left to buy our products.
Isolationism is arming both sides of a conflict, only to discover that you’ve made two enemies
instead of keeping two friends. Isolationism is trying to police the world but creating more
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resentment than gratitude. Isolationism is not understanding economics, or other cultures, but
clumsily intervening anyway and creating major disasters out of minor problems.
The government should not be in the business of giving out favors to special interests or picking
winners and losers in the market, yet this has been most of what has consumed politicians’ attention
in Washington. It has reached a fevered pitch lately and it needs to end if we are ever to regain a
functional and prosperous economy.

[Eric]

This is my one point of major disagreement with the Libertarians. Their support of so-called "free trade" indicates a real blind spot in their thinking.

Any sensible person favors free exchange between individuals within a given society - and even between nations that have essentially similar systems (with some caveats).

But what we are talking about here is multinational corporations and thug regimes (such as China) leveraging cheap labor in a rush to the bottom that only benefits the elites and oligarchs who run multinational corporations - and the thug regimes that partner with them.

To say there can be "free trade" between a free or relatively free society and slave society such a China is an absurdity. To equate free exchange between individuals with the massive, state-assisted leveraging and labor arbitrage cons of multinational corporations is evidence of galloping stupidity - or evil intent.

[swamprat]

This is my one point of major disagreement with the Libertarians. Their support of so-called "free trade" indicates a real blind spot in their thinking.

Any sensible person favors free exchange between individuals within a given society - and even between nations that have essentially similar systems (with some caveats).

But what we are talking about here is multinational corporations and thug regimes (such as China) leveraging cheap labor in a rush to the bottom that only benefits the elites and oligarchs who run multinational corporations - and the thug regimes that partner with them.

To say there can be "free trade" between a free or relatively free society and slave society such a China is an absurdity. To equate free exchange between individuals with the massive, state-assisted leveraging and labor arbitrage cons of multinational corporations is evidence of galloping stupidity - or evil intent.

I can't believe the libertarians buy this sucker play. In Paul's case, I can't believe its galloping stupidity, but evil intent is hard to divine from his other positions. I don't get it.

[Eric]

I can't believe the libertarians buy this sucker play. In Paul's case, I can't believe its galloping stupidity, but evil intent is hard to divine from his other positions. I don't get it.

Me either.

Part of it is they haven't learned to distinguish between real free trade (that is, free exchange of goods and services between individuals and small-scale businesses within the framework of a free society that enforces the rule of law upon all members of that society) and the labor arbitrage/leveraging of multinational corporations.

Corporations, I have come to believe, are one of the root causes of the evils we are suffering from today.

To paraphrase Jefferson, "corporations have no country." Neither should they be allowed legal privileges that apply to individuals, such as freedom of speech or freedom from regulation.

[swamprat]

Me either.

Part of it is they haven't learned to distinguish between real free trade (that is, free exchange of goods and services between individuals and small-scale businesses within the framework of a free society that enforces the rule of law upon all members of that society) and the labor arbitrage/leveraging of multinational corporations.

Corporations, I have come to believe, are one of the root causes of the evils we are suffering from today.

To paraphrase Jefferson, "corporations have no country." Neither should they be allowed legal privileges that apply to individuals, such as freedom of speech or freedom from regulation.

Yeah. I believe that corporations were granted personhood back in the 1880's by some vile supreme court justice. I would like to take a dump on his grave.

[Eric]

Yeah. I believe that corporations were granted personhood back in the 1880's by some vile supreme court justice. I would like to take a dump on his grave.

Here are the men responsible for destroying America:

Alexander Hamilton - The "financier" responsible for pushing a central (and privately owned) bank onto the country; who pushed shyster corporatism and consumerism as the purpose of existence.

Abe Lincoln - America's first dictator who raped the Constitution and knifed the republic by imposing a consolidated/omnipotent in principle federal government on the people; who vitiated the concepts of limited government and divided sovereignty; who imposed the first tax on income and set all the precedents for the Total State we live under today.

Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson - The two most responsible for creating the American empire and creating the tradition of "nation building" and meddling in the affairs of foreign countries; for creating the welfare-warfare state.

FDR - For instituting corporatism and parasite socialism (Social Security, etc.)

Lyndon Johnson - For erecting the system of racial spoils and entitlements; for unleashing mass immigration of Turd World peasants on the country.

The Chimp - For gutting the tattered remnants of the Bill of Rights.

Barry Soetero - For finishing the Work of transforming the country into a statist corporate-socialist gulag.