Tom Friedman of the NYTimes stupidly notes, per usual:
"I feel sorry for Western European blue collar workers. A world of benefits they have known for 50 years is coming apart, and their governments don't seem to have a strategy for coping."
WELL, TOM THERE IS A WAY OF COPING AND IT'S AS OLD AS GOVERNMENT ITSELF....PROTECT YOUR MARKETS!!
Ever since the FREE TRADE NONSENSE has overtaken the West...we have forgotten OUR HISTORY.
It is NOT UNUSUAL FOR NATIONS TO PROTECT THEIR MARKETS AND THEIR WORKERS.....it goes WAY back to ancient times and ever since.
IN TRUTH, THESE PERIODS OF "FREE TRADE" ARE THE ANOMALY IN WORLD HISTORY... SADDLY, THIS SCREWBALL NOTION OF "FREE TRADE" ALWAYS POPS UP WHEN THERE IS A FIGHT OVER "DOMESTIC" ECONOMIC ISSUES...
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "REALITIES" IN THE REAL WORLD AS FRIEDMAN AND OTHERS STUPIDLY PROCLAIM.
(CHECK OUT THE HISTORY OF OTHER FREE TRADE MOVEMENTS. PLEASE! WE DIDN'T JUST "DISCOVER IT" IN THE 1990's YOU KNOW!)
PAUPER LABOR, EVEN "INTELLIGENT" PAUPER LABOR, HAS BEEN WITH US SINCE MOSES BUILT THE PYRAMIDS IN EGYPT! IT'S NOT NEW....OK?
Here's what has to be done in Europe and in the US...tariffs MUST be established TO PROTECT THE LOCAL AND NATIONAL ECONOMIES...BECAUSE AT THE END OF THE DAY...ALL ECONOMIES ARE LOCAL.
Friedman's FREE TRADE MIRACLE has only given us a MASSIVE TRADE GAP that no one even wants to talk about REALISTICALLY.
NO. WE AMERICANS WILL NEVER BE "AS CLEVER" OR AS HUNGRY AS THOSE WONDERFUL INDIANS, OR THE STRAVING COOLIE LABORERS OF CHINA....BUT WHY SHOULD WE BE? ANSWER THAT?
SHOULD WE ALL STARVE JUST TO SATISFY THE INSATIABLE GREED OF INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL?
MORE VOTES LIKE FRANCE AND HOLLAND TO COME TOM....get used to it.
And, it's coming to a ballot box near you...probably in 2006.
http://gloomanddoom.blogspot.com
Postscript: To Friedman-Your book is pure drivel. Soon to take it's place on the remainder table next to Dow 36,000.
