Fred Ziffel wrote:

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 17:54:34 GMT, Jonathan Ball
wrote:

Fred Ziffel wrote:

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 16:32:56 GMT, Jonathan Ball
wrote:



We used to make very high quality products too.

We still do. We make those things where we have some
comparative advantage. Increasingly, the things we
make are not tangible. That doesn't make them any less
valuable.


Sorry, I've been listening to these same bull**** arguments for over
20 years,

No, you clearly *haven't* been listening to them. You
very clearly don't understand comparative advantage,
and patterns of trade. You are economically illiterate.


No, I'm not "economically illiterate," I just don't have my head up my
ass, like you do. You are obviously a brainwashed fool who would
deliberately destroy America with your idiotic theories about
economics, theories that have absolutely no basis in reality.

I'll leave you now so you can worship at the altar of "comparative
advantage."

But you might want to give the collum below a read when you are done
saying your prayers to the gods of free trade. It may be
enlightening.

Fred Ziffel

----------------------------------------------------------

http://www.unsustainable.org/view_art_un.asp?AID=291


Once again, another leftist is attempting to scare people by citing
statistics and drawing an unrelated conclusion from it. And as true to
form as ever, the author is quick to lay out the blame (and thereby
exposing their not-so-hidden agenda), but offers not one bit of advice
on how to "fix" it.

One of the biggest reasons for a trade deficit are differences in
economic standings. The US economy is recovering faster than much of the
rest of the world. As such the U.S. dollar is failry strong. As long as
the dollar remains strong there will be more imported goods than
exports, simply because our money can buy more goods, while selling less
compared to the currency in other countries. Everyone cries when the
dollar devaluates, but that's exactly what needs to happen in order to
equalize the trade situation.

There are other factors to consider as well, but the last thing we need
to do, is get the government involved with trying to regulate free
trade. There are so many facets to the economy, that you might think
that a ceratin "control" (such as a tariff) would have a short term goal
of bolstering domestic production. But it could have damaging
repercussions in other areas. Nothing can illustrate this better than
the current health care and insurance debacle. The more we try to "save"
people by offering them more and more insurance to offset medical costs,
the more incentive the healthcare industry has to raise prices. That's
the legacy we have when we try to regulate or control a part of the free
market.

Dave