Although I suspect that it is not only our interventionist foreign policy that makes us hated by others. When we push to open markets in the face of opposition from less economically powerful countries, we may be treading on (and angering) them in another way. The "free" markets imposed by the WTO etc can be just as powerful a tool of underdevelopment as any war. Protecting their own economies may be their only chance to develop and eventually attain the "comparative advantage" in manufactured goods that we have (and got through extensive protections ourselves). Pushing free trade now is tantamount to saying that we get to keep the comparative advantages that we acquired through centuries of economic protection, slavery, etc, while today's developing countries can use none of those tools in their struggle to develop. Poverty, like war, creates a lot of anger.
You are describing interventionist foreign policy! "When we push to open markets..." Again, the WTO is not, I repeat, NOT a free market. When something is mandated with the barrel of a gun, it is specifically not free.
You are totally correct about poverty, like war, creating anger. Often, this anger is a result of interventionist programs, WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, various foreign aid programs, on top of straight out war mongering. If your interested in taking away our comparative advantage,(neo-liberal economics jargon) then demand that the US Government cease all economic development programs in foreign countries!
Now THIS I can get behind!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I suspect that it is not only our interventionist foreign policy that makes us hated by others. When we push to open markets in the face of opposition from less economically powerful countries, we may be treading on (and angering) them in another way. The "free" markets imposed by the WTO etc can be just as powerful a tool of underdevelopment as any war. Protecting their own economies may be their only chance to develop and eventually attain the "comparative advantage" in manufactured goods that we have (and got through extensive protections ourselves). Pushing free trade now is tantamount to saying that we get to keep the comparative advantages that we acquired through centuries of economic protection, slavery, etc, while today's developing countries can use none of those tools in their struggle to develop. Poverty, like war, creates a lot of anger.
You are describing interventionist foreign policy! "When we push to open markets..." Again, the WTO is not, I repeat, NOT a free market. When something is mandated with the barrel of a gun, it is specifically not free.
ReplyDeleteYou are totally correct about poverty, like war, creating anger. Often, this anger is a result of interventionist programs, WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, various foreign aid programs, on top of straight out war mongering. If your interested in taking away our comparative advantage,(neo-liberal economics jargon) then demand that the US Government cease all economic development programs in foreign countries!