What free trade has done for the Third World is to pop up corrupt governments, abuse the environment and lift a small part of Third World labor from desperate poverty to statsitical poverty. It also neutralizes scial and political pressure for national development. I know that the "better than nothing" arugment of neo-liberals like DeLong. Sometimes, "nothing" is better than disguised slavery. A total collapse of free trade would be a very progressive development.
Henry
Max Sawicky wrote:
> >
> > Max, has EPI or the AFL-CIO done any polling on free
> > trade? The anti-free
>
> We don't poll. AFL may have commissioned polls. We do analyze
> polling data. Rui Teixeira has done reports on public opinion
> and trade.
>
> > trade position just doesn't seem like a political winner. And
> the few polls I've seen show a majority of the U.S. public
> approving of NAFTA. With 80% of the U.S. labor force employed in
> services, and so largely immune to
> international competition, does the anti-free-trade line resonate
> with the
> masses as much as it does with the UAW?>
>
> My impression of the polling analysis is that reservations, to
> put it mildly, about free trade are rife among the non-rich.
>
> As for services, I've never had trouble explaining to service
> people that their wages can be negatively affected by those of
> their peers in manufacturing. Would that other stuff was as easy
> to explain.
>
> mbs