Chris, I knew that if I persevered, something might eventually get through.
Free trade means dropping restrictions on trade. Unilateral free trade is what I favor for the US. However, it is most unlikely, as the mountain of privilege erected on bribery (ahem, excuse me, political contributions) seems unlikely to be removed soon. Forcing other countries to drop their import restrictions has nothing to do with free trade. It is plain coercion and the WTO - which is beginning to show the incompetence and possible venality that most governmentally created bodies descend to - applies it to smaller countries but cannot tackle the large. I don't know why you are surprised. I've been repeating this forever. However, I must be grateful for small mercies - this one being your reading, at last, what I write. The internal free market of the US is very spotty - but is still in good health. A number of things are controlled by the government, which keeps their prices high - milk is an example. Most things are subject to free market discipline and that is why things are so cheap here. (I was checking camera prices on the Internet yesterday. The UK numbers in pounds were the same as the US price in dollars. In other words, the UK prices were about 50% higher than the US for identical camera. But, you know about high prices in your controlled country "protected" from competition. Harry ******************************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 http://haledward.home.comcast.net ******************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 2:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Slightly extended (was Re: [Futurework] David Ricardo, Cavema n Trade vs. Modern Trade Harry Pollard claimed: > (Chris thinks the US is a free trading country with an internal free > market, but then he thinks some very peculiar things.) It's a pity that Harry can only make his points by misrepresenting me. I am well aware of the US double standards of demanding FT from others while practicing protectionism itself (e.g. in the steel trade). I didn't say that the US has "an internal free market", but I said that if FT is really only about domestic trade, as Harry surprisingly claimed, then I wish him luck in introducing FT in the US, and only there. The literal quote (from yesterday) is appended below. Chris [Harry:] > A free trader wants to abolish trade restrictions in his country. > If no other country wants to free its trade, that doesn't matter. > The free trader will unilaterally free his country's trade and by > doing so will remove the corporate privileges that go with > Protectionism. If it's like this, then please act to introduce Free Trade in your country only, and get your gov't to STOP pushing FT down everyone else's throat (as in establishing FT areas all over N.+S.America and the Middle East, and bullying Europe, Asia and 3rd world into removing "trade barriers"). Good luck in doing so, Harry. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.541 / Virus Database: 335 - Release Date: 11/14/2003 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
