THE COMMON MAN AND FREE TRADE
by Andrej Gjorgievski with Al Swearengen
The title sounds like it is intended for a fairytale from 2 centuries ago. However, it is a harsh reality for many individuals in the world, for the average Joe and the common Jack who work in the local factory. Free trade does not take fairness in consideration. It does not have to be fair as long as it is profitable and efficient. That is the backbone of free trade.
**The role of the government**
Governments are doing something about this issue, making promises. “We are going to protect our workforce and our businesses. We are going to restrict the cheap products coming from overseas!” .These are the sayings you might hear when elections are around the corner. If only the politicians kept their promises. These same politicians have their campaigns funded by the corporations who are never satisfied with their profits, it is never enough. The greed reaches out to every country in the world. There are no borders for the free trade. Once the politicians are in power, policies that open the market for overseas companies follow. The government and the corporations act in the following way: “You scratch my back, I scratch your”. Guess whose back is not scratched? You’re right, Jack’s and Joe’s backs. In fact they are feeling the whip on their back. No job, no income and the bills keep piling up. It seems like the government remembers them only when tax is to be paid.
**The effects of free trade**
Cheap products are good for the society, but not for the businesses in it. Without any restrictions on imports, nothing stops the corporations and the big businesses to have their production facilities in a foreign country where the labor is cheaper. That is good, right? Wrong. Every U.S. major corporation has its production facilities in countries like Malaysia, China and Indonesia. This means jobs; jobs are going out of the states. For every single person working in a U.S. corporation factory in China, a U.S. citizen is unemployed. The main reason for this is, yet again, the labor cost.
There is one solution to the problems which are caused from free trade. Abolish it. The EU is an open market for its members. So far the only country who has/had benefits of it is Germany. The rest are in debt, with high unemployment or are on the verge of bankruptcy. Millions of people lost their jobs because of the open market. Businesses moved their facilities to the poorer countries to exploit the lower wages. Why shouldn’t they? There is nothing to stop them. It is an open market, free trade, no restrictions on products which come from overseas.
Benjamin Franklin said “No country was ever ruined by trade”. Well, trade did not, but free trade certainly did.
**What to do about it?**
There is not much the common man can do to fight free trade. Paying extra dollars to support local businesses and their products is the only thing the common man can do. In the short run it turns out costly, but your son/daughter tomorrow might get a job in that company. If the government is not protecting the small businesses, you do it by buying domestic products, manufactured by domestic workforce. That is fair. The small business and the common man should scratch their backs. By protecting domestic businesses you protect your future, your children’s future.
**Free trade in the future**
Free trade is the bane of the existence of the small business and politicians support it with their actions and policies. Let’s hope that there will not be free trade. Let’s hope that every market can operate as a separate organism. Any foreign products should be under tariff policy to discourage foreign companies from selling in our country. This will also move off-shore facilities home, which will provide local unemployed workforce with jobs they crave about.
However, this is highly unlikely going to happen. Globalization grinds the little guy, paves the way for the big business and their astronomical profits.
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Radio Free Webdiplomacy
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