Free trade my a**

Or, free trade explained in plain English.

The so-called "free trade" is a hot topic again. There is lots of talk about Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP), atleast in the independent/alternate media [Yeah, the media for the 99% is "alternate" while the 1%-ers' media is mainstream. Tells a lot about US, no?]

We get all the standard nonsensical talking points - job creation [well, not in US], increasing exports [well hello, what about imports?] blah blah blah. We know better. But leave it to the master story teller Eduardo Galeano to deconstruct what "free trade" really means :

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Eduardo_Galeano/Upside_Down.html

Free trade is sold as something new, as if born from a cabbage or the ear of a goat, despite its long history reaching back to the origins of the unjust system that reigns today:
* three or four centuries ago, England, Holland, and France practiced piracy in the name of free trade, through the good offices of Sir Francis Drake, Henry Morgan, Piet Heyn, Francois Lolonois, and other neoliberals of the day
* free trade was the alibi all Europe used while enriching itself selling human flesh in the slave trade
* later on, the United States brandished free trade to oblige many Latin American countries to accept its exports, loans, and military dictatorships
* wrapped in the folds of that same flag, British soldiers imposed opium smoking on China, while by fire and in the name of freedom, the filibuster William Walker reestablished slavery in Central America
* paying homage to free trade, British industry reduced India to the worst penury and British banks helped finance the extermination of Paraguay, which until 1870 had been the only truly independent country in Latin America
* time passed, and in 1954 it occurred to Guatemala to practice free trade by buying oil from the Soviet Union, and the United States promptly organized a devastating invasion to set things straight
* shortly thereafter, Cuba, also failing to see that free trade consisted of accepting prices as imposed, purchased outlawed Russian oil; the terrible fuss that ensued led to the Bay of Pigs invasion and the interminable blockade.

In short, it is organised crime/organised looting. That's all folks.

p.s : IMHO, if there is one book we can read to understand Economics - I mean the real thingy, Galeano's "Upside Down" is the one.It can't get any simpler or more interesting than reading the master storyteller. RIP Galeano.

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posting Funkygal, make yourself at home. I was just sitting over at EB wondering where everyone went, now I know. Biggrin

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got here where I can catch up with old buddies like BigAl. Hope I will get back into my writing habit.

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has lasted this long without someone dropping a nuclear bomb on top of their headquarters...there isn't anything that they can't make worse.

Nice post.

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praenomen

"tools" TPTB have at their disposal - divide and conquer - race, gender, nation etc etc, organised sports, religion,dumbed down education, lamestream media etc etc. Although as the saying goes, "you can fool some people for sometime, many people for more time, but you can't fool all the people all the time". Some day the sedatives will wear off and it's not going to be pretty.

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LapsedLawyer's picture

economist David Ricardo back in 1817 when he coined the term "comparative advantage" which always had one component that doomed it's applicability to the modern world from the start, namely, that capital was immobile. TPP and all other trade deals are first and foremost about capital being able to freely move and exploit -- and super exploit workers in less-developed countries, thus retarding the development of these countries owing to the wealth generated from the increased economic activity being exported back to the already-developed world.

Thus the notion that TPP (or NAFTA, or CAFTA, or any number of free trade deals) would result in more jobs here is a fraud.

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"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon

gulfgal98's picture

It's good to have another gal here. Wink

My personal definition of free trade is the corporate exploitation of resources and labor of third world countries while bringing our own citizens down to that status.

Please continue to write here and don't worry about any cuss words either. Good

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

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