Friday, February 24, 2006
UAE - Ports - and Free Trade
Free markets are necessary for free trade but not quite the same. In order for free trade to exist between countries both countries must have free markets. If only one country has a free market then free trade is impossible.
I am one of the few "economics" enlightened liberals that believes in free trade. While there will always be individual winners and losers free trade - real free trade that is - benefits everyone. But here is the problem, China does not have an open free market. Japan does not have an open free market. Central America does not have a free market. And the UAE does not have a free market.
What happens when a free market economy like the U.S. trades with a closed economy like Japan, China, or Mexico? What happens is that the free market economy (that would be us) gets cheated. Take Mexico or China as examples. Both countries allow multinational corporations to evade environment laws and basic rights of workers to collective bargaining, as well as, health and safety. So, so called American multinational corporations - which are granted full human rights status as people under the U.S. Constitution - including the right to $$$free speech$$$ - but which have no moral or patriotic commitments to the United States can go to these countries and rape the environment that everyone in the world depends on for survival - and they can rape, cripple, kill, and unfairly exploit the workers. These factors create defacto subsidies for these corporations to move production to these countries. Therefore these countries are not practicing free trade. They are subsidising the corporations to move production to their country. This puts downward pressure on the ability of American workers to earn a living wage under survivable working conditions. It is a race to the bottom.
In true free trade, production would move to these countries, but they would need pollution control equipment - standard of living and wages would rise - which would create new markets for American products - which would create new economic opportunity for Americans. That is not happening. More and more of our productive capacity - more and more of our economic power - more and more of our "equity" and ownership of our own country, is transferred over the border as we borrow more and more money to buy more and more products from more and more countries that cheat us in international trade by subsidising our amoral multinational corporations to transfer production to their countries without giving us a fair opportunity to sell our products to them.
Japan is a little different case. They invaded our markets while keeping their markets closed to us. Their markets are still largely closed to us. They cheated us starting in the 70s and they are still cheating us.
Increasing industrial productive capacity in China combined with decreasing industrial capacity in the U.S. will make China into the worlds only super-power.
So... it is clear that the real agenda of the Bush Regime is to serve the amoral UnAmerican American multinational corporations, and that this regime does not care about the real interests of the American people.
So... the UAE does not practice free trade and that is reason enough to deny them this deal.
It has been pointed out by others that this company is tied to the UAE government. That being the case, it is reasonable to look at the UAE and question their intentions and sympathies. Others have pointed out that there is clear evidence to suspect that the UAE has terrorist sympathies. It has already been pointed out by others that even assuming that this company is innocent it is reasonable to wonder if they have been infiltrated.
If I were Osama, and I wanted to be able to ship WMD around the world, I would like to have some friends in the shipping business. The easiest way to infiltrate the shipping industry would be to infiltrate the Arab shipping industry and then migrate from there. Now that is all speculation - yes - but reasonable suspicion.
Sure the Coast Guard provides security. The police provide security on your street, but they don’t know what really goes on on your street as well as you do. Your boss controls your office, but does he really know what people talk about the water cooler. He probably does. He probably spies on you. The point is simply this, people on the inside have access to inside information - hence the term inside job.
So this is clearly an issue that raises security concerns, and the fact the this Regime would rubber stamp this deal without a full blown investigation is, at the very least, another example that Bush is still reading “MY PET GOAT.” It is “hard work”, sounding out all of those big words. That is the best face that you can put on this. ¶ 7:25 PM
I am one of the few "economics" enlightened liberals that believes in free trade. While there will always be individual winners and losers free trade - real free trade that is - benefits everyone. But here is the problem, China does not have an open free market. Japan does not have an open free market. Central America does not have a free market. And the UAE does not have a free market.
What happens when a free market economy like the U.S. trades with a closed economy like Japan, China, or Mexico? What happens is that the free market economy (that would be us) gets cheated. Take Mexico or China as examples. Both countries allow multinational corporations to evade environment laws and basic rights of workers to collective bargaining, as well as, health and safety. So, so called American multinational corporations - which are granted full human rights status as people under the U.S. Constitution - including the right to $$$free speech$$$ - but which have no moral or patriotic commitments to the United States can go to these countries and rape the environment that everyone in the world depends on for survival - and they can rape, cripple, kill, and unfairly exploit the workers. These factors create defacto subsidies for these corporations to move production to these countries. Therefore these countries are not practicing free trade. They are subsidising the corporations to move production to their country. This puts downward pressure on the ability of American workers to earn a living wage under survivable working conditions. It is a race to the bottom.
In true free trade, production would move to these countries, but they would need pollution control equipment - standard of living and wages would rise - which would create new markets for American products - which would create new economic opportunity for Americans. That is not happening. More and more of our productive capacity - more and more of our economic power - more and more of our "equity" and ownership of our own country, is transferred over the border as we borrow more and more money to buy more and more products from more and more countries that cheat us in international trade by subsidising our amoral multinational corporations to transfer production to their countries without giving us a fair opportunity to sell our products to them.
Japan is a little different case. They invaded our markets while keeping their markets closed to us. Their markets are still largely closed to us. They cheated us starting in the 70s and they are still cheating us.
Increasing industrial productive capacity in China combined with decreasing industrial capacity in the U.S. will make China into the worlds only super-power.
So... it is clear that the real agenda of the Bush Regime is to serve the amoral UnAmerican American multinational corporations, and that this regime does not care about the real interests of the American people.
So... the UAE does not practice free trade and that is reason enough to deny them this deal.
It has been pointed out by others that this company is tied to the UAE government. That being the case, it is reasonable to look at the UAE and question their intentions and sympathies. Others have pointed out that there is clear evidence to suspect that the UAE has terrorist sympathies. It has already been pointed out by others that even assuming that this company is innocent it is reasonable to wonder if they have been infiltrated.
If I were Osama, and I wanted to be able to ship WMD around the world, I would like to have some friends in the shipping business. The easiest way to infiltrate the shipping industry would be to infiltrate the Arab shipping industry and then migrate from there. Now that is all speculation - yes - but reasonable suspicion.
Sure the Coast Guard provides security. The police provide security on your street, but they don’t know what really goes on on your street as well as you do. Your boss controls your office, but does he really know what people talk about the water cooler. He probably does. He probably spies on you. The point is simply this, people on the inside have access to inside information - hence the term inside job.
So this is clearly an issue that raises security concerns, and the fact the this Regime would rubber stamp this deal without a full blown investigation is, at the very least, another example that Bush is still reading “MY PET GOAT.” It is “hard work”, sounding out all of those big words. That is the best face that you can put on this. ¶ 7:25 PM
