RE: [Futurework] Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:14:06 -0700

Arthur, old friend,

 

Trade doesn’t guarantee peace – it just make war less likely.

 

I doubt that trading with Genghis Khan would have stopped the Mongol hordes from practically destroying Hungary. Also, when a Hitler or Mussolini is bent on grabbing territory, we do know they will try to make themselves as self sufficient as possible. Such actions are usually a prelude to hostilities.

 

I trust you are not suggesting that  the  thirties  were  a  sparkling example of free trade.

 

For  example,  Japan  wanted  American   cotton. However,   American protectionists wouldn't let the Japanese pay for the cotton with  Tee-shirts and suchlike so in the late 30's Japan changed its pattern  and began buying scrap metal - which, perhaps, later  returned  to  Pearl Harbor.

 

If a thriving trade in Tee-shirts had developed between the  two countries, then maybe . . . . .?

 

Perhaps the old saw is outdated. It was once good that a self-interested relationship would develop between people of many countries. It is good that peoples become interdependent. If I supply you with food and you supply me with oil, we have every reason to remain friends.

 

However, we are now in a world where privilege is normal and trade has become politicized. Whether or not we sell corn or rice is no longer the province of individual traders. Instead, the privileged mightily profit from what has become National Trade Policy.

 

So the “free trade” talks with Australia have given us access to Australian lamb – but won’t let us have Australian sugar.

 

I used to think that such customs union as NAFTA or the activities of the WTO were better than nothing. However, now I’m not so sure.

 

They give real free trade a bad name.

 

Little has changed since the early battles between the Liberal Free Traders and the Conservative Protectionists except perhaps that the Conservatives have recruited left-wingers to their cause – which is something of a laugh!

 

It’s still a fight between those like myself who believe that people should make their own choices (however, imperfect they may be) and those who decide that the all-knowing, all-powerful shall make choices for them.

 

You’ll recall my mention of the twit Douglas Jay in the post-war British Labor Government who told us “The man in Whitehall knows best” and declared that the government knows far better than the British housewife what she should buy.

 

Of course back then political correctness was unknown and PR hadn’t raised its ugly head, so politicians were likely to say what they thought.

 

Not now, but do you think their view of ordinary people – the Great Unwashed - has changed?

 

When people are allowed to trade with each other, they have little incentive for war. When barriers are erected between them, an important deterrent to belligerency is lost.

 

Harry

 

*********************************

Henry George School of Los Angeles

Box 655  Tujunga  CA  91042

818 352-4141

*********************************

  

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Cordell, Arthur: ECOM
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 6:07 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Brad McCormick
Cc: Christoph Reuss; [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Futurework] Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

 

Harry

 

As for your antipode, trade is the ultimate of sharing as you give what is yours for what is his. It is peaceful cooperation. The old saw – “If goods don’t cross the frontiers, armies will” is as true now as it was 200 years ago.

 

Arthur

 

Goods were crossing borders in 1939 and 1941 and yet WW2 erupted. First in Europe and then with US and its former trading partners.

 

So it seems that goods can cross borders and armies can later follow.

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Harry Pollard
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 6:37 PM
To: 'Brad McCormick'
Cc: 'Christoph Reuss'; [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Futurework] Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

Brad, old lad,

 

Call it what you wish. People like McDonalds stuff. They get enjoyment from it.

Call it Public Health, epidemiology, i.e., a socially coordinated application of human intelligence if you wish, but it boils down to some people telling others what to do. The burger eaters are harming no-one but themselves.

A Unitarian Minister in Ontario once said that: “People should be allowed to go to hell in their own fashion.” If a Mcburger is the path, so be it.

However, I doubt that it the worst thing they imbibe.

As for your antipode, trade is the ultimate of sharing as you give what is yours for what is his. It is peaceful cooperation. The old saw – “If goods don’t cross the frontiers, armies will” is as true now as it was 200 years ago.

Harry

*********************************

Henry George School of Los Angeles

Box 655  Tujunga  CA  91042

818 352-4141

*********************************

 

 

From: Brad McCormick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 12:42 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: 'Christoph Reuss'; [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Futurework] Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

 

Quoting Harry Pollard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

[snip]
> Billions of people buy from McDonalds and apparently you would
> like to prevent them.
>
> It's called the collectivist mentality.

[snip]

I'd prefer to call it Public Health, epidemiology, i.e., a

socially coordinated application of human intelligence.

"Waking persons share a world in common, but

The dreamer turns to a world unique to himself."  (Heraclitus)

Alas, I know, that "sharing" can take the form

of entrepreneurial competition, which is transcendentally

a kind of sharing [persons cannot compete without

sharing the market space in which they

compete, sharing the protocols of

buying and selling, etc.],

but emiprically this is an antipode of sharing.  --Just

as it is *a* form of coordinated social intelligence

for persons to all decide not to coordinate their

action plans.... ("Many things are strange, but strangest of all

is man, and the strangest of all things about this strangest of

all creatures is that he finds everything strange except for himself...."

--Sophocles, Ode to Man, in Antigone)

\brad mccormick



--
  Let your light so shine before men,
              that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)

  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)

<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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