Quoth Brian Holtz: ----- Whether free trade is good for workers in developing countries is not really debated any more by academic economists of any ideological persuasion. -----
It is, however, still debated by Libertarian presidential nomination candidates. Steve Kubby: "The best incentive for improving respect for human rights in China comes from an upwardly mobile Chinese populace. A starving slave may lash out, but the people who come together in an organized fashion to achieve real change are those who have tasted freedom and comparative wealth and want MORE of both. Look at America's civil rights movement. It didn't gain its traction during the Great Depression. It took off in the post-war boom period. "When we trade with China, we help ourselves -- and we help the Chinese people. They get food in their stomachs. They get money in the bank. They get leisure time from what used to be a hand-to-mouth existence. They finally have something to lose -- and the means to fight to keep it." http://www.2008electionprocon.org/candidates/stevekubby.htm#chinasanctions George Phillies: "When a country is a dictatorship that suppresses labor unions and shoots labor organizers, the goods it exports are stolen property, stolen from the workers coerced to make them. Stolen goods cannot be traded freely. We should not engage in 'free trade' in stolen property. Furthermore, it is only fair that all manufacturers pay the same taxes. We may differ as to what those taxes should be. However, there should not be one tax rate for Ford Motors, and another much higher tax rate for General Motors. When we place a financial burden however labeled on American manufacturers, fairness dictates that foreign imports be subject to the same burden, a tax equivalent to whatever minimum wage and environmental restrictions foreign manufacturers are avoiding." http://phillies2008.org/phillies_on_free_trade
