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The Damaging Consequences of Free Trade

This article was originally written in 2012 as a followup to the material I first wrote about pertaining to US trade policy in my banned 2006 book, America's Financial Apocalypse.

This book was the only book in the world to have accuractely forecast nearly every major event related to the blow up of the real estate bubble and stock market.

It also detailed numerous wide ranging topics that promised to adversely impact the US if not corrected, including the nation's healthcare system, soaring college costs, pension underfundedness, Social Security and of course, US trade policy. 

For over three decades, proponents of free trade have promised Americans more jobs. This promise has not been kept. Ever since NAFTA was signed into law in 1994, developing nations have been on the receiving end of millions of jobs that have left the U.S. soil.

The truth of the matter is that free trade was designed to boost corporate profits. And it has achieved this objective with impressive fashion. Thus, because the wealthiest Americans own large numbers of corporate shares, free trade has also been responsible for the widening wealth and income gap between America’s wealthy and working class.

In the early 1980s, free trade was marketed to American voters in conjunction with President Reagan’s deregulation debacle. Further deregulation during the Clinton administration would enshrine the United States with fascist elements that to this day continue to impose severe consequences for the nation and its people. 

Ever since free trade was passed by President Clinton, it has been expanded from North America to Central and South America, and most recently to South Korea. Now Washington is pushing through what could be the most damaging free trade agreement since NAFTA, referred to as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

I have continued to insist that free trade remains as the single most destructive economic policy in the United States ever since I first detailed this topic six years ago in America’s Financial Apocalypse; a book that has been banned by the U.S. media. Here, I summarize some of the most damaging consequences of free trade.

1. Loss of American Jobs

Advocates of free trade point out that it serves as a great benefit to consumers because lower-priced goods are made available in the global marketplace. What they fail to mention is that these lower prices are due to numerous illegal and unfair business practices from China and elsewhere, ranging from currency manipulation and industry subsidies, to labor force exploitation and bribery. These unfair advantages ultimately lead to the theft of wealth and income from Americans in the form of jobs once held by the middle class.

Millions of Americans whose lives have been directly impacted by free trade understand the damage it has done to the U.S. economy. They also understand the danger it poses to America’s future.

Others who have not yet experienced the damning effects of free trade have been told that it promotes higher living standards, so they accept these claims without bothering to examine the data.

Among the biggest cheerleaders of free trade policy are economists, business school professors, the media and others who have been bought off by corporate America and its allies in Washington.

Scholars working for so-called “nonpartisan” think tanks consistently underestimate the negative impact of free trade. Some of these hacks even insist that free trade has resulted in net job creation.

A smaller number of think tanks that have been much more critical of free trade have estimated that it has cost 4 to 5 million American jobs since 1994. My own estimates show that total job losses in the United States as a result of free trade policy range from 13 to 15 million.

2. Low Quality Goods Cost More

Supporters of free trade fail to mention the fact that most manufactured goods from Asia (ex-Japan) and Latin America are of much lower quality than if they had been produced in the United States. As a result, these goods will not last as long, so consumers will be required to purchase three or more ovens, vacuum cleaners, stoves, and other appliances over their life time, rather than one as was the case decades ago when these items were made in the United States.

This is yet another way for corporate America to boost profit growth. It is known as planned obsolescence, and it is never discussed in the media for obvious reasons. America’s fascist establishment does not want consumers to understand how they are being ripped off.

In short, Americans have foolishly traded cheaply made trinkets for millions of good jobs that have been outsourced. And much of this spending has been on borrowed money. Outsourcing does provide consumers with less expensive mobile phones and PCs. The problem is that it does nothing to address the rising costs of basic necessities such as food, energy and healthcare.

Remember, you only need one or two $3 brooms imported from Asia. At some point, Americans need good jobs in order to remain strong consumers and thereby boost economic growth.

Since free trade has been in effect, the US has struggled to create good jobs which support healthy wage growth. This explains why consumer debt remains at such high levels. This system of debt enslavement was created by the Banking Cartel. Using their control over Washington, they have been able to get any laws passed they’ve needed to ensure continued exploitation; this includes free trade.

3. Trade Deficits Mortgage off America’s Assets

Free trade has also resulted in massive trade deficits with Asia because the US no longer makes most of the goods demanded by its consumers. In return for sending its manufacturing industry overseas, the United States has fortified the wealth of developing nations which have amassed huge trade surpluses with the US This has enabled America’s trading partners to buy critical US assets, ranging from highways and bridges, to manufacturing plants and intellectual property.

4. Selling off America’s Technology Advantage

Free trade has also put America’s research and innovation on the auction block. For instance, technology transfer departments can be found on nearly every university campus. Their objective is to sell or license patents and other types of intellectual property that have been developed by university researchers to the highest bidder from the private sector.

There are virtually no restrictions on who can purchase university patents and other forms of intellectual property that have been developed at America’s finest universities. For instance, one of the largest customers of university-based intellectual property outside of the U.S. has been Japan.

Auctioning off university-based intellectual property to foreign competitors jeopardizes America’s innovation leadership, which is really the last remaining pillar of the U.S. economy.

Moreover, it represents taxpayer fraud because much of the research leading to the formation of these intangible assets has been funded by U.S. taxpayers. This represents just one of many examples of greed that has infiltrated and perverted the nation’s so-called non-profit university system.

5. Declining Scientific Research

The free trade-inspired shift in the U.S. from a manufacturing to service economy has created many other negative side effects. Over the past two decades, as America’s manufacturing base has been sent overseas, federal research funding has dissipated.

As fascism strengthened its grip on the U.S., the gap in R&D funding began to be filled by large corporations. Rather than an atmosphere of unhindered basic research and development, a significant portion of the nation’s innovative mandates are now funded by large corporations, both domestic and foreign.

As a result of this change, much of the research in American universities is focused on near-term commercial ventures rather than pure scientific investigation. This short-sighted approach has already damaged America’s leadership in basic scientific research. Perhaps the biggest problem underlying this trend is that it can take decades before the consequences are felt.

6. Human Exploitation and Environmental Catastrophe 

Although free trade has heightened the economic growth of developing nations, it has also been responsible for numerous adverse consequences seldom discussed in the media.

For instance, lax environmental regulations have transformed certain parts of China into cesspools of toxic waste, poisoning the land, water and local residents. Already, several villages in China that have been littered with industrial waste are experiencing astronomically high rates of cancer afflicting large numbers of relatively young adults.

Those developing nations that have permitted slave labor and have neglected reasonable standards of environmental protection are creating enormous contingent liabilities. Over the next few decades, massive sums of money will be required to address chronic damage to the ecosystem and to fund healthcare systems in Southeast Asia which will be overwhelmed with millions of victims of free trade.

7. Wasted Human Capital and Increased Fraud

The inequities of free trade have made it difficult for manufacturing operations to remain competitive on U.S. soil. As a result, engineers and scientists are no longer paid well. Many of these professionals, America’s best and brightest, have difficulty finding employment; something previously unheard of in the U.S. With few alternatives, they have departed for lucrative careers on Wall Street.

In the best of cases, they help firms scalp assets from investors. More often than not, they help Wall Street devise new ways to defraud investors. This represents a tremendous loss of human and economic productivity and adds to the criminality of the nation’s financial system.

After all, why would anyone choose to rack their brain trying to learn fluid dynamics, quantum physics and thermodynamics for a career that no longer offers job security or nice wages?

Instead, why not enroll in business school, get your MBA and work in the corporate world or Wall Street? With an MBA, they will “earn” three times the salary of an engineer. By the time they graduate, their professors will have reinforced their sense of entitlement; a key yet unmentioned facilitator of Wall Street fraud.

At the end of the day, the benefits of opting for a much less rigorous degree program are indeed very tempting for college students. They can do a lot more partying and a lot less studying. And they can make a great deal of money working as white collar criminals in corporate America or Wall Street.

The message of hard work for less pay eventually gets channeled to the nation’s youth, which opt for easier career choices. In a society that has been molded into “what’s good for me,” and “how can I get by doing the least amount of work,” the only focus is on self-gratification and cheating the system. This has become the true face of capitalism in the United States.

Altruism, virtue and a sense of nationalism are relics from past in today’s perverted society due to the greed, moral decay and perversion implanted into the minds of Americans by Hollywood.

8. Misappropriation of Taxpayer Funds

As enrollment in science and engineering programs by the U.S. citizens continues to decline, more of these spots are being given to foreign students. Upon graduation, many foreign students return home after gaining the knowledge from America’s taxpayer-subsidized university system.

Finally, instead of more engineering and science universities, America has seen the rapid growth of for-profit universities that exploit tax payer-based financial aid, in order to churn out leisure and hospitality workers to serve America’s privileged class.

9. Loss of Autonomy

Ever since shifting to a service-based economy, the United States has become vulnerable to the actions of foreign nations because it no longer manufactures many of the key elements required to maintain economic autonomy.

The national security of the U.S. has also been weakened due its disintegrating manufacturing infrastructure. Instead of building everything needed by the nation’s military, the U.S. relies on a large list of potential enemies for some or all of the key components used in combat. Thus, if a global war broke out, the United States could find itself in trouble since it does not make most of the weaponry and military goods essential for combat. And because it can take many years to retool lost industries, the delays could be devastating.

The United States has also suffered the loss of political autonomy. Because free trade falls under the authority of several global bodies such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, the United States must obtain approval for various policies and actions.

Autonomy or sovereignty is a dirty word to the globalists. Their goal is to destroy autonomy so that both individuals and nations become dependent on the international Banking Cartel and multinational corporations. Under the grip of this vice, individuals will be told what to do, how to think and what to say without any regard for the nation’s culture, heritage or consensus. This enslavement has already reached an advanced stage.

Nations refusing to play ball with the establishment’s demands face economic sanctions. This is the precise predicament confronting Iran today. Despite the claims made by the Western media, Washington is not going after Iran to stop progression of its nuclear energy program. It is using this as an excuse.

Throughout this two-decade long period of so-called free trade, America’s wealth and income inequality has expanded rapidly, pushing millions of Americans into poverty. Meanwhile, as the profits of corporate America have soared, so have the living standards of the developed world. Yet, the establishment continues to promise prosperity for working-class Americans.

If for some strange reason it is determined that the United States is to bear the responsibility of raising the living standards of the developing world, the burden of this objective should be placed solely on America’s wealthy rather than its working class. This is not that will be demanded by Washington. It will only become a reality once the people stand up and make it happen. They should be ready, willing and able to achieve this objective by any means necessary.

If the American people do not take those actions required to regain full control over their corrupt government, they cannot complain when their freedoms, liberties and living standards are stripped from them. Time is running out.

See Also: 

Free Trade And The Suicide Of A Superpower (Part 1)

Free Trade And The Suicide Of A Superpower (Part 2)

Free Trade And The Jewish Mafia

Ford As A Crystal Ball For America

Ford: Playing Its Last Hand?

GM Lines Up for Its Take

Washington's War Against America's Middle Class

Video: Educating A Libertarian Hack From Harvard

7 Myths About US-China Trade and Investment 

The Scam Called Globalization

The Dirty Secret about Hedonics & Globalization

Thailand, Globalization and Real Estate Economics

America. What Went Wrong? (Part 1)

America. What Went Wrong? (Part 2)

America's Second Great Depression

America's Eroding Job Quality

The Death of Labor Unions in America

Death of America

Record Profits and the Huge Sucking Sound of American Jobs

Mike Discusses the Globalization and Free Trade Scam (2014 audio archives)

Free Trade and Globalization: The Biggest Secret You're Not Being Told

Uber, Free Trade and the Jewish Mafia

How Is America's Open Borders Policy Linked to Minimum Wage, Affirmative Action & Free Trade?


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