The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33649   Message #450144
Posted By: Jim the Bart
26-Apr-01 - 04:27 PM
Thread Name: Quebec City Protest - Part 2
Subject: RE: Quebec City Protest - Part 2
The "free trade" crowd is trying to apply good old "trickle-down" economic theory on the macro level, i.e., what's good for the corporations will be good for the workers. The problem with this theory is that it's the owners (and senior managers) that benefit, not the common laborers. The disconnect becomes even greater when the owners are in one country and the laborers are in another.

Someone in an earlier post thought it ironic that where the Woody Guthrie-age protestors were for open borders, we were now protesting "free trade", as if NAFTA & FTAA are the fulfillment of that dream. It just goes to show how this issue is being spun. These agreements create conditions that are the antithesis of what the labor unionists fought and died for.

If you can't see that there is a difference between support for fairness and equity for labor and "communism", if you don't understand that there is a difference between a fair return on investment and usery, if you can't comprehend that all the stock options in the world won't keep you alive when there is no clean air or water left - than you are a part of the problem. You may think well of yourself, but you are helping to degrade the quality of life on this planet. My planet. You may be a nice guy/girl, but the world is better off without you.