Thursday, April 10, 2008

Why Neither Obama nor Clinton Should Become President

Democrats have not always been isolationists opposing free trade, and it is odd that they have become so now, at a point in history when modern transportation and communications render such a position hopelessly obsolete. It is also strange that they have been forced into obeisance against free trade by their trade union constituents. Unions represent only about 7% of the private workforce. They only hold dominant numbers among government employees, whose jobs typically are not susceptible to outsourcing. Be that as it may, Nathan Moore speaks strongly and accurately about these economic Luddites:

I don’t think anyone who opposes free trade is fit to be president. The economic reality is that free trade is good for the nation. As critics accurately point out, inefficient and soon-to-obsolete industries suffer, and workers are displaced. Through the wonders of capitalism, the process of creative destruction soon provide livelihoods to those who once worked repairing the economic equivalent of wagon wheels and telegraph machines. NAFTA shouldn’t be strategically redeployed - it should be extended to the tip of Chile.

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