What is free trade????

Question

What do you think of the "free trade" ideology from the point of view of american citizens/workers? ?

compared to trade as practiced say as recently as the 1970's.

who benefits most from this "free trade" ideology where borders are irrelevant ...and who loses out?

add on question: How will our country..the USA (and its people ( workers and citizens) be better off if the free trader ideology wins out?

Answer 1

Free trade is hard for most people to understand, so I use extrapolation to explain it. If trade barriers are good, then why not have more of them? Start off stopping trade between all states in America. Then stop all trade between different cities in each state. Then use rivers to stop all trade between the the north and south or between the east and west side of each city. You could then stop all trade between all communities. By extrapolating, you approach a point of absurdity, which proves that trade barriers, including immigration barriers, hurt the economy overall.

The study of economics tells us that free trade, which includes labor, raises world productivity, and that's it's these increases in productivity that will raise our wages and social spending in the future.