For Free Trade

(fm the BC thread "The ending year")

peterike,
We have way too much junk as it is

What you are advocating is exactly the same as the position of the elitists of the AGW cult. Who died and made you Pope able to decide what is good for other people to buy with the fruit of their labor? It is reason for me to thank my parents that they taught me not to feel deprived without polyester clothes, paintings on velvet and laminate pine furniture but that does not give me or you the right to deprive other people of those goods if that is what they want to do with their money. If the tastes and choices of the people are deplorable then that is a failure of education that should be addressed. Perhaps if you send $20 to public television they will show the students episodes of Jane Austen on Great Performances.

The Republican party in the 19th century was the high tariff party and in the last 30 years it has become the free trade party. Free trade builds wealth and allows capital to be deployed to achieve an optimum in a position of comparative advantage. That wealth can then be used to improve many facets of society. It would be healthy for the elites to support through charity efforts to improve the taste and judgement of the people. It is natural for communities to guide and improve the judgement and standards of their members through religious and other voluntary associations.

A rational immigration policy is part of a healthy effort to ensure that an unnecessary pool of unskilled labor is not imported. In part that would help shift the public demand for goods away from the disposable and wealth exporting items you deplore into a higher savings culture. That does not mean that I am opposed to immigration, only that I believe that it should be encouraged for the good of the admitting nation and not just for the interests of individuals. I would eliminate most of the changes regarding family reunification that Ted Kennedy sponsored over the last 45 years.