Free Trade

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

DQ it has always been that way and always will be, it is natural law, it is what created us at the expense of other life forms not as competitive. I am afraid for me it is so simple, and I say again it is Yin Yang theory that explains it. It is the constant flow or oscillation between extremes, one way too far so has to come back the other, always looking for balance but never finding it. No matter how many rocks you put in the way of the river it will always find ways around them eventually. We think in decades nature works in milleniums.

My free trade concept doesn't stop the discipline of rogue states, we already do this with sanctions. That is what I see as part of the function of international law. The process of free trade and the creation of international law go hand in hand, but it has to start with removing the blockage, we can then sort out the nuances.

[Lurcher300b]

it is what created us at the expense of other life forms not as competitive.

I think you will find that what allows us to get to the top of the food chain was not our competitive nature, we can compete as much as we want against a lion, but we will still die. What made us succeed was language and the ability to exchange concepts, form culture, organise and specialise. The best fighter may not be the best strategist, but you combine them and the result is greater than the sum of the parts.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

That is just part of the competition, it is far more than just physical strength.

[Daniel Quinn]

I AOS are discussing trade . Having read the thread I can only compare it to playing football with a 2 year old when Mesut Ozil lives next door

H/s the Arsenal of forums .

[savvypaul]

There is no such thing as free trade . ALl trade is carried out in a legal and framework regulations . Until these regulations are uniform throughout the globe you cannot open the world to free trade , it would be disastrous .

Spot on, DQ.

Now, does that make me 'sosavvy', 'notsosavvy' or just plain 'savvy' again...

[Classicrock]

I do not think people are scared of free trade - in the current situation with Brexit the main issue was freedom of movement. This allowed relatively cheap labour to travel within the EU to where there was work and to provide labour at low prices.

Free Trade without Free Movement in the UK means that production prices will have to be raised, because there is no cheap immigrant work-force left. The answer already being found is to shift all production to China - creating a reliance on the Chinese economy.

So in the free trade market envisaged by the pro-Brexit camp it might turn out that British goods are simply too expensive to compete.

Prices would not go up and production costs would hardly go up! Cheap foreign labour has kept unemployment up and that figure is artificially low because of people going self employed either working for a pittance for someone else or scraping a living out of their one man business. Also there is a big pool of 'early retired' who have given up on jobs market due to ageism. If we had so called full employment there would be less than half a million unemployed. Rising labour costs would make companies focus on productivity and reinstatement of bonus schemes related to output, time and motion and related techniques. We have lots of jobs so badly paid only desperate migrants can afford to do them or they are not made available to British people, but with low productivity levels.

[Daniel Quinn]

There is no such thing as free trade . ALl trade is carried out in a legal and framework regulations . Until these regulations are uniform throughout the globe you cannot open the world to free trade , it would be disastrous .

Spot on, DQ.

Now, does that make me 'sosavvy', 'notsosavvy' or just plain 'savvy' again...

Agreeing with me makes you supersavvy

[Frasernash]

I do not think people are scared of free trade - in the current situation with Brexit the main issue was freedom of movement. This allowed relatively cheap labour to travel within the EU to where there was work and to provide labour at low prices.

Free Trade without Free Movement in the UK means that production prices will have to be raised, because there is no cheap immigrant work-force left. The answer already being found is to shift all production to China - creating a reliance on the Chinese economy.

So in the free trade market envisaged by the pro-Brexit camp it might turn out that British goods are simply too expensive to compete.

Prices would not go up and production costs would hardly go up! Cheap foreign labour has kept unemployment up and that figure is artificially low because of people going self employed either working for a pittance for someone else or scraping a living out of their one man business. Also there is a big pool of 'early retired' who have given up on jobs market due to ageism. If we had so called full employment there would be less than half a million unemployed. Rising labour costs would make companies focus on productivity and reinstatement of bonus schemes related to output, time and motion and related techniques. We have lots of jobs so badly paid only desperate migrants can afford to do them or they are not made available to British people, but with low productivity levels.

The UK should do what many other countries do restrict certain imports , the Japanese did it for years with Car imports and Americans with steel there is no free trade

[savvypaul]

Agreeing with me makes you supersavvy