There seems to be a wide swath of the population – thankfully centered mostly in Washington, D.C. – that acts as if history started the day Donald J. Trump was sworn in as our 45th President.
Chief among them – are the proponents of alleged “free trade.”
In this, they are very much like the climate change alarmist freaks.
The climate change freaks dismiss out of hand the past billions of years of Earth’s dramatically changing weather. With frozen wastelands near the Equator – giving way to temperatures warm enough to inspire the rise of 100-foot cold-blooded dinosaurs. And back and forth again – hitting temperatures all along the thermometer spectrum.
The climate change freaks dismiss ALL of this history. And bizarrely pretend this temperature – right here, right now – is the planet’s perfect thermostat setting. And ANY deviation therefrom – is cataclysmic.
It’s insane.
The Status Quo ‘Free Traders’ (SQFTs) – are just as dismissive of history.
Which for the last half century-plus has been filled to overflowing with awful, one-sided, anti-US trade deals – cut with countries all the world over.
Each new terrible deal – blew yet another hole in hull of the USS United States. We’ve been taking on more and more water – for fifty-plus years.
Upon Trump’s arrival upon the political scene – we were basically driving aimlessly, dead in the water. We’d lost tens of millions of jobs – and wages had remained incessantly flatlined.
The Status Quo ‘Free Traders’ – dismiss all of this history. And like the climate change freaks – bizarrely pretend the trade climate right here, right now…is the epitome of free trade perfection. And any deviation therefrom – is cataclysmic.
It’s insane.
Almost inarguably, the worst trade deal we have – is with Communist China.
How Much Has the US Lost from China’s Intellectual Property (IP) Theft?:
“The United States Trade Representative, which led the seven-month investigation into China’s intellectual property theft and made recommendations to the Trump administration, found that ‘Chinese theft of American IP currently costs between $225 billion and $600 billion annually.’”
Let’s conservatively take the lowest theft number – $225 billion – as the theft number each and every year. Which will more than make up for monetary inflation.
And let’s conservatively say these massive annual thefts – only date back to China’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). (Though they almost certainly were stealing from us for decades prior.)
That puts China’s theft of our IP – again, very conservatively – at over FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS.
And that’s just the direct theft. That doesn’t calculate the many times that amount lost in sales of authentic IP – to cheap Chinese knock-offs.
And that doesn’t even get into China’s massive tariffs on our goods. Or their highly restrictive limits on what we can send them.
Or the massive subsidies China gives their companies – which then pollute the entire world market. Because every dollar China gives its companies – is a dollar less they can charge on the world market. Which undercuts everyone else on the planet – including everyone who makes…just about anything here in the US.
President Trump is currently working to remedy all of this China anti-free trade nonsense. And he knows – as with every other country on Planet Earth – China needs us WAY more than we need them.
The Status Quo ‘Free Traders’ – can’t grasp this patently obvious concept. So they are freaking the heck out.
“Tariffs are taxes!!!” “You’re a Communist central planner!!!” “You need to read Hayek and Bastiat!!!”
Actually, I have read Hayek and Bastiat. Unless Salma has written something of which I am unaware.
Why Trump’s Tariffs on China Hurt Everyday Americans
Sure – if the tariffs were the end – not a means to an entirely different end. Which is yet another patently obvious concept the Status Quo “Free Traders” can not grasp.
The New European Union (EU) Trade Deal: No One Likes Tariffs – Which Is Why Trump Imposes Them
Which begets:
The EU Offered Us a Free Trade Agreement with Zero Tariffs on Goods
‘A Very Big Day for Free and Fair Trade’: Trump Announces Preliminary Deal with EU
But for the Status Quo ‘Free Traders’ – there is no history. Every day – starts the world anew. In this way – they’re actually even worse than the climate change freaks.
Trump’s Tariffs on Mexico and Canada Hit Even Closer to Home
Except:
U.S., Canada and Mexico Just Reached a Sweeping New NAFTA Deal
And so it is all over again with China.
We Actual Free Traders await China’s inevitable cave. Just like Mexico and Canada caved. Just like all of the EU caved.
The Status Quo “Free Traders” pretend all of this of history hasn’t happened – and freak the heck out all over again.
This first appeared in Red State.