2 thoughts on “GOP Voters Anti-Free Trade?”

  1. Call it what you want, even neo-protectionism, but I am concerned about trade w/China. I consider myself to be pro free-market.

    The dangerously-made products (I’ll probably be forced to go apologize to the Chinese for this!) there only got attention when consumers here were hurt, because many people don’t know or don’t consider the cost to the Chinese of their manufacturing base.

    I’m not all about unreasonable govt regulations either. But I wouldn’t consider it “free trade” if you sent a product over to China to be produced that requires a process like chrome-plating, but their employees (to their detriment by way of cancer) are not required to be protected against the hazards related to breathing in process vapors. (workers’ paradise?) Similarly, if they made their product and then dumped the carcinogenic by-products into a canal, I don’t consider it worth the cost saved where here in the US the company would be required to dispose properly of the solvents in a manner that wouldn’t adversely affect the populace.

    So maybe what I mean is there are aspects (not to mention supporting a communist regime) that the American consumer won’t see but are morally reprehensible.

    So maybe saying someone’s “anti-free-trade” in this context would be a little like slapping the xenophobe label on people who want illegal immigration curtailed.

    (Sorry for the super-long comment)

  2. With the dollar’s exchange rate, foreign trade is going to be less of a concern in the future.

    I’m for a tit-for-tat foreign trade. If one nation has protections against us, we can have protections against them.

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