General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Since Free Traders believe that America should lower its standard of living to help the third world [View all]Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)Where do people like you come up with such nonsense.
As for so called "mainstream economists", most of them have no fucking clue what's happening to working people in the real world as a result of their support for anything that has the word "Free Trade" attached to it. NAFTA, GATT/WTO, CAFTA, and all the other so called "Free Trade" agreements these clowns support are not even real "Free Trade". They are nothing more than outsourcing/investment scams using the term "Free Trade", and they are written by Wall Street and Corporate America to line their own pockets. The bought and paid for Washington politicians rubber stamp this shit, and now working people are paying the price.
As for Smoot-Hawley, it had little effect on The Great Depression. International trade was only about 4% of our GDP when it passed in 1930. That fell to about 2% later, but then all trade was decreasing because people didn't have any fucking money. Also, trade in products not even covered under Smoot-Hawley was falling for the same reason. When economist says Smoot-Hawley caused the The Great Depression or had this massive impact on it, that is when I know that economist is bought and paid for just like the Washington politicians that forced this shit upon us.