The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33466 Message #446488
Posted By: GUEST,Spike
22-Apr-01 - 03:23 AM
Thread Name: Quebec City Protest of Free Trade.
Subject: RE: Quebec City Protest of Free Trade.
The older I get the harder it is to see things in black and white. I belong to a tradition which donates to international relief, and development in third-world countries. Why shouldn't NAFTA and other such antidotes to economic protectionism not be applied? We became outraged when Japan employed excise taxes to block American goods, and we objected strenuously. When we object to free trade, we defend the economic barriers which our country has traditionally erected to bar foreign goods from sale in our country. When we do this we forget the lessons of the French Revolution and others in which the impoverished population rose in revolt and destroyed the oppressors. We live in a world community. We can't continue as economic vampires and survive. By using protectionism, WE are the oppressors. It appears "We have met the enemy, and they are us."--Walt Kelly