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Free trade works. It turns out China is just "more efficient" at manufacturing than the rest of the world. As the Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman
by khawkins 7y ago
Free trade works. It turns out China is just "more efficient" at manufacturing than the rest of the world.
As the Nobel prize winning economist Milton Friedman loved to argue, unilateral free trade helps both countries. (https://fee.org/articles/in-1970-milton-friedman-called-for-unilateral-free-trade-rather-than-retaliation-we-still-haven-t-learned-that-simple-lesson/ https://fee.org/articles/in-1970-milton-friedman-called-for-...)
I'm being sarcastic, but this has been the position of libertarians and both the center left and right for a long time. Of course, they didn't factor in the fact that trying to compete with literal slave labor means working class Americans see their wages stagnate. Further, it guarantees that this slave labor is very profitable for the Chinese upper class which get to live like kings, even though their GDP/capita might not be efficient.
For countries like North Korea, Cuba, and Iran, human rights abuses result in economic isolation and consternation. But for China, their human rights abuses pay for our cheap stuff so we'll look the other way.
- LessDmesg 7y agoFree trade is maximally effective. Maximal effectiveness usually entails moral compromises. In real life we usually take a more balanced approach towards people: you forgive your girlfriend for having a little too much in the bum, and she forgives you for not being Tyson Fury. But when it comes to big money, greed and faraway countries/abstract masses of citizens, being uncompromising and exploitative comes easier. Any sort of regulation of slave labor/human rights/ecology in China will inevitably reduce overall efficiency and make everything more expensive. That's the only way to make things fairer, but only until some other country makes a more efficient bid and offers up its citizens as low-wage slaves.
- lopmotr 7y agoThe good caused by global free trade far outweighs this small issue. If you don't like globalization, find a strong reason, not a random exception to the norm of win-win.
- claudeganon 7y agoIf a million people in concentration camps, being used as forced labor for a wide swathe of multinationals, counts as a “random exception” to you, you may need a strong adjustment to your moral calculus.
- fwipsy 7y agoAgreed in general, but just because free trade is mostly win-win doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve on it through regulations and such.