Is free trade beneficial to the economy, such as it reduces poverty? |
Free trade is a positive thing, provided it's done with integrity on all sides and situations.
Free trade would be a positive thing, if all parties involved were honest and had proper integrity. Free trade would enable all countries the opportunity to share within the international market, and help the underdeveloped countries get a step up, to help themselves. I would like to see privileged counties reach out and help those that need assistance, without paybacks or kickbacks.
Posted by: FrequentSal49Free trade encourages business development, which creates jobs.
Free trade helps to create an economic environment that benefits a great amount of people. When businesses are profitable more jobs are created. When businesses are profitable employees receive better pay and better benefits. People are given more chances to better themselves and families live in better conditions. A better economy depends on a better business environment.
Posted by: babydoll93Yes, I believe that free trade creates an influx of wealth and employment for all.
The movement of goods across international borders has been the basis of the greatest creation of wealth in the history of the world. While some may profit more then others through this process, free trade offers an influx of wealth to a society that can used to alleviate societal needs and provide gainful employment to every economic level within that society. The creation of wealth and employment proves that free trade is a positive policy.
Posted by: taisiemayI believe free trade helps reduce poverty and inequality.
Truly free trade helps reduce poverty and inequality because it provides opportunities for all. Furthermore, taking into certain economic theories of free trade into consideration, theoretically resources would be efficiently used to increase the standard of living for everyone in a society.
Posted by: 5c0IeakFree trade is beneficial to any economy, because it allows simple supply versus demand fluctuations to determine prices.
If trade is taxed and levied against, then products will be more expensive to obtain. Thus, this either decreases the amount of product sold, or increases the amount people have to pay for said product. If the item is a necessity, then people have no choice but to pay the extra amount and become poorer. And, if it is a non-necessity, then less people will buy it, leading to less jobs, leaving more people unemployed.
Posted by: DerangedGil33Economic nationalism is a proven ill
No nation that has ever based itself on economic nationalism and reduced free trade has managed to grow the living standards of its people. Economic borders are imaginary and political lines that cause only the restriction of competition and, therefore, the quality of products and services as well as their prices. Restricting trade between nations is the same as restricting commerce between neighborhoods. No neighborhood will be able to provide every single good necessary to its survival.
Posted by: CrevauxFree Trade improves improves well-being of the economy.
Free trade is essential to a growing economy. It opens up vast markets. Resources flow to where they are the most productive. Productivity is thus maximized, and more competition = lower costs. Higher savings are a result, and the poor and all others have greater income, and thus the economy grows. Investment can be expanded with growing revenues and competition. Low income economies such as Vietnam have a huge bonus, higher demand for workers = higher wages and employment. Overall, it improves the wages of workers, improves employment and the economy, and creates peace.
Posted by: ContraSo long as trade has demand in a place it can occur.
Any free trade is beneficial to the community, but the economics are dependant on a demand in a local area. If you have a lot of bananas you sell those bananas, if you have a lot of fish, you sell those fish. You offer a trade for another trade. It creates opportunities to reduce poverty, so long as the demand is good.
Posted by: BearI believe free trade is beneficial, because interventions in trade have made things worse.
Poverty is a problem, throughout the world. And, many of the places that have the worst poverty also have the most restrictions and regulations on how individuals can do business with one another. In this country, in the 1960's, the government started a "War on Poverty" to help people, but it failed to produce the intended result. As a matter of fact, it made a bad situation worse. Needlessly complicated and unnecessary business regulations, along with excessive taxes, have also made it hard for people to improve their social standing.
Posted by: ErvinAnimeI strongly believe the more holds we put on free trade the more harm we will do to our society.
The American dream was built on the principle of free trade. That's what made the middle class thrive over any other nation in the world. We need to go back to our roots. Free trade puts the little guy in the same league as the big dogs. Free trade benefits everyone.
Posted by: goshdarnI believe free trade is essential to the well-being of the economy.
Free trade is the life-bread of our economy and is essential to the well-being of all our citizens. In order for the economy to grow, and for poverty to be reduced, free trade must be encouraged to flourish. The fall of communism could easily be traced to the lack of free trade. People lack ambition when free trade is subverted.
Posted by: P05hyDaIIFree trade between peoples has been demonstrated to improve the quality of life of the poorest people.
Although many people in the "first world" lament the "loss" of jobs to countries around the world with cheaper labor, the simple fact of the matter is that the ability to transport capital freely around the world has improved the lives and working conditions of millions upon millions of the poorest people. Although the loss of first-world jobs is upsetting and can be socially dislocating for those people, the benefit to the global poor of the free exchange of capital cannot be underestimated.
Posted by: ThunderingDeon63?
This is kind of a screwy question in my opinion but I think that free trade must have quite a number of benefits to the well being of an economy since the US has basically centered its entire economy around free trade, and has thrived more then any other nation because of it.
Posted by: imabenchFree trade is beneficial to the economies of the world by helping to reduce poverty in Third World countries and benefiting the West by lowering the costs of products.
When free trade is allowed, jobs are created in poor countries that pay much greater wages to the kinds of jobs that the average person there is able to get. Imported goods are much cheaper than goods made in the U.S. so we are able to afford more things that our families need. Everybody benefits by free trade.
Posted by: JeffP4ri5
You kidding with this question?
How can any hard working American be in favor of free trade? Our wages continue to plateau and the price of living skyrockets. Great. All the while sellout companies continue to outsource OUR jobs and manufacturing. This does not spur the economy! Better wages and oppurtunity does. The USA shouldn't be put on a third world level playing field. We're America dammit!Americans shouldn't have to accept lesser wages. The greatest thing about our nation was the potential to produce unlike any other. This created oppurtunity, jobs and greater living standards. Most of the world doesn't understand these concepts. Now I'm afraid too many Americans through self hate, guilt and lies believe we belong with the rest of the world. Thank you Mr. Lame Duck President and your Wall Street backed cronies.
Posted by: Leddy72Free trade is not beneficial, as it increases poverty both in the United States and abroad.
Free trade agreements cause the loss of U.S. jobs, while also keeping wages low in other countries. By not charging tariffs on imported goods, these free trade agreements encourage U.S. manufacturers to take their jobs overseas, thereby increasing unemployment and poverty in the U.S. At the same time, these corporations pressure foreign governments to allow their citizens to work under horrifying conditions, as detailed in the reports of the suicides at the Apple manufacturing plant.
Posted by: P3nrIinDue to lack of international regulation it grows the working poor.
As it has been argued it is a race to the bottom and to be competitive it ends up requiring countries to undercut each other. While it has benefited the worlds poorest countries that's because things are already so bad off there that getting sweatshop labor is a good thing, if there was a global regulatory policy as to wages and environmental conditions then yes as it insures that globally people will see a benefit and more developed nations have less an undercurrent, however there is a fine line between allowing jobs to go wherever best and allowing the exploitation of other people
Posted by: AnonymousI think free trade is taking too many jobs away from this country.
Nafta, Tafta, free trade; in my opinion they are all hurting this country. We have lost so many jobs in this country because everything is outsourced to other countries. The logic is, why pay the American a high dollar wage when we can get some other countries' worker to do it for pennies on the dollar. Basically they are stealing jobs from Americans and putting the same Americans in poverty while they are barely feeding people of poverty in other countries. What a legal rip-off.
Posted by: SlipArnalFree trade, as it currently exists, is a race to the bottom.
Free trade, without regulation on labor and environmental impact, leaves a multitude of problems in its wake. First, production areas are notorious for lowered health and quality of life of residents. Employment shipped overseas is without health regulations and fair wage protection. It doesn't ensure against poverty. It just enhances it overseas.
Posted by: ExoticCurtThe jobs are given to underpaid desperates in third world countries.
It's ridiculous. No country has all natural resources or manufactured goods. Global trade has compensated for this absence, and by doing so it has made the world a smaller place. Free trade is based on the unrestricted international exchange of goods with tariffs used only as a source of revenue. This means that it is free of government intervention, and is an unrealistic policy based on the circumstance of perfect competition. Free trade has had an unbalanced impact on MEDCs and LEDCs as it directly benefits advanced industrialized countries and hinders the development of poor countries.
Posted by: AnonymousNo, free trade hurts America, by allowing companies to go wherever it is cheapest, like slave labor in a third world country.
We do not have free trade in America today. We give everyone else our money while we buy their stuff. Because of free trade and the lowered import taxes, it is now cheaper for companies to have something built elsewhere, and only sell the product to America. This has caused a large portion of middle-class jobs to vanish, and for more money to go out of the country than is brought in.
Posted by: H_BairdFree trade promotes poverty and inequality by allowing businesses to outsource to the lowest bidder.
There are some countries in the world where workers will happily do extremely difficult, dangerous, or menial tasks for just pennies compared to what an American worker would make. Free trade allows companies around the world to set up shop in those countries, and pay those pennies, while U.S. workers continue to be laid off. Free trade not only promotes poverty overseas by employing countless foreign workers at salaries well below any rational poverty line, but it promotes poverty in the United States by cutting the number of jobs available.
Posted by: A BassFree trade does not reduce poverty in developed nations.
While one could argue free trade reduces poverty in developing nations, no one has seen that is increases poverty in developed nations. There is only so much money in the world. Allowing companies to race to the bottom on wages, simply takes from one country to give to another. Although it's goals are admirable, it is not possible that it will reduce poverty, because of it's nature. By giving to one, you automatically increase poverty for another. It is similar to taking half of one your children's plate of food to feed the neighbors child. Your child has 50% less and the neighbor child has %50 more.
Posted by: StormGraNo Free Trade is detrimental to our economy.
Free trade is destroying our economy. Industries cannot compete with the low cost labor in other countries and therefore, good high paying manufacturing jobs are leaving the country. Yes, we get cheaper goods but with our income stagnant that is not much of a benefit. Free trade only makes the economies of all countries equal, which means ours will be weaker.
Posted by: R43ShepFree trade is not beneficial to the economy as it does not allow a surcharge for product in demand.
Clinton sold the United States to China. Now, in the United States, when you pick an object up and turn it over, it has Made in China stamped on the bottom of it. Companies that once employed American workers have gone overseas to reap the rewards of cheap labor and free trade. It is killing the country.
Posted by: CowardlyVirgil31Free trade is not beneficial to the economy and it hurts the working class people of America.
Free trade in theory is good for the economy but the version of free trade that the United States has brokered with the rest of the world (namely NAFTA) is not free trade. Since the passage of NAFTA hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs have been sent to Mexico and other countries south of the border. This practice is eliminating the blue collar middle class and thus creating a new class of impoverished Americans who find themselves on the outside looking in on the free trade debate of the United states
Posted by: AndreaSIt's good for emerging economies but not for developed countries
USA is the number one economy. We have nowhere to go but down while developing countries have no where to go but up. It's a zero sum game: what they gain, we lose. Auto workers in America made $25 per hour plus medical and retirement in 1990. Now they make $12.50 for the same job with less medical and no retirement. Yet the price of living has gone up, not down. Europe (the number two economy) is starting to experience the same problem. It's no wonder we have a budget deficit as taxes are based on income and income is down. So now they want to raise taxes.
Posted by: NeexNo, because free trade worsens the economy, and actually deepens poverty.
"Free traders" can simply offshore their jobs to places where they can get away with anything. It encourages some places to be forcibly kept desperate, to ensure a steady supply of cheap labor. Goods that would normally be produced by people getting a decent wage are instead produced in sweatshops.
Posted by: EqualClaud72