“Everyone thinks free trade is a great idea until they realize that it has some very dark corners. Currently one of those dark corners is the export of high dollar high value jobs from the US to foreigners”.
It’s been said there’s no such thing as a free lunch – someone’s gotta to pay for it. Ditto with *free* trade. The mantra of free trade sounds great, eliminating import tariffs and allowing free flow of goods and services across borders. The problem is that there are huge disparities between economies and countries and the differences are never mitigated to achieve fairness or a level playing field. Who gets screwed? – the US taxpayer on the back of Joe Wagearner of course.
For instance other countries subsidize health care, education, childcare, etc. Communist China fixes it’s currency at an artificially low rate, effectively subsidizing their exports. Lax environmental, legal, child labor, copyright and piracy laws prevail at many of our trading partners.
The biggest beneficiary of free trade is large corporations. They also have effectively reduced their US tax burden by utilizing “aggressive accounting techniques and having favorable laws passed” according to a recent Newsweek article; (using Treasury Dept data) in the 1940s corporations contributed ~ 60% of total tax receipts, 40% from individual income, now it’s ~20% from corporations and ~ 80% from individuals.
