David wrote:
>
>>KEITH: Well said. The "modern" debate about free trade, globalisation and
so forth
>>is merely today's equivalent of the debate about usury that went on for a
>>thousand years in the Middle Ages (and before that in Greek and Chinese
>>times). Every time free trade resumes and prosperity revives, some
>>authoritarian body wants to lay their hands on the profits -- the Church,
>>principalities, guilds, more latterly nation-states -- and so they start to
>>impose restrictions on trade by taxing it. This succeeds for a while but
>>inevitably fails as the general population sinks into increasing poverty.
>>
>The problem with free trade is not prosperity, although some few are
>becoming enormously prosperous, but in fact impoverishment of the majority,
>and of the planet itself.
Free trade is simply unrestricted exchange of goods between people. In
other words it is the continuance of cooperation between people that has
existed since the beginning and which has taken us from tribal insularity
to a broad vision of the whole world.
That's all - if that weren't enough.
It doesn't (it cannot) make a few prosperous and a majority poor.
The market is impartial. It doesn't take sides. To blame it is a lazy way
to avoid the real reasons for the tremendous difference between the very
rich and the very poor.
It would be too much, perhaps to ask you to read Henry George's "Progress
and Poverty" where he asked 120 years ago 'why, in spite of enormous
progress in production, is it so hard to make a living?" Then he proceeded
with magnificent reasoning to come to conclusions - and offer remedies.
Or, you might read his "Protection or Free Trade", where he makes the best
case for Free Trade ever penned - then shows why the benefits of trade
don't get to the people at the bottom of society. The same arguments can be
used to show why the benefits of capital, of machines, of factories,
innovation, and invention, also fail to benefit the poor.
The more Capital we have, the more trade we have, the more wealth is
available for all of us. But it doesn't reach everybody, either in the US
or in the third world.
For heavens sake, ask why?
>We are seeing with globalization of trade a rapid increase in the gap
>between rich and poor.
We also see El Nino, poor SAT scores, and a Republican Congress
Harry
*************************************
Harry Pollard
The Henry George School of Los Angeles
Box 655
Tujunga CA 91042
Voice : (818) 352-4141
Fax : (818) 353-2242
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