Minimum Wage and Protectionism

[guyton]

Could someone explain to me exactly why "protectionism" is so bad?

Do you believe in a national minimum wage? If yes, then how do you reconcile that belief with "free trade" and a policy of allowing massive numbers of jobs to flow to whatever country happens to have the lowest labor costs?

Do you believe in protecting the environment? If yes, then how do you reconcile that with allowing imports of products made in countries where environmental protections any less than ours?

Do you believe in labor unions? If yes, then how do you reconcile that with purchasing non-union produced goods?

Do you believe in having safe products on store shelves? If yes, then how do you reconcile that with purchasing products that are oh so so so cheap ... in sometimes dangerous ways.

I am not an economist, nor a politician, but I totally fail to see how:

- massively increasing the national debt is going to fix our economy
- increasing consumer confidence (aka increasing consumer debt) is a good thing
- allowing our ridiculous trade imbalance is anything but a recipe for disaster
- we can possibly reverse global warming with our current trade policies

Buy me a drink or three and I'll feel great for a while. Maybe even long enough to go buy that new car I think I need. But I won't feel better when I sober up and figure out that I can't make the payments. And when I realize I also have to pay the bar tab I'll feel even worse.

My suggestion? The word that must not be said: protectionism.

- we need to protect the concept of a minimum living wage
- we need to protect our unions
- we need to protect the environment
- we need to protect our health
- we need to protect our economy

I'm not really against "free trade" ... as long as our trade partners share our minimum wage levels, our environment protections, our product safety requirements, and our child-labor laws. We can complete just fine when the playing field is actually even.

But without some protectionism, aren't we all just short-sighted hypocrites looking for another round of "free" drinks?