Debunking the Debate Over "Free" Trade & Low Prices by David Sirota

[Douglas Carpenter]

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=7A6427FE-DDF3-0E61-44CBDE4044C5D17F

Debunking the Debate Over "Free" Trade & Low Prices by David Sirota

Posted by permission of Mr. Sirota--be sure to subscribe to his E-mail list--here is the link:

http://www.davidsirota.com/

A friend of mine today regurgitated one of the saddest, most devious,
yet most oft-repeated arguments for corporate-written trade deals:
they lower prices for goods in America. He said "the fact that we can
buy white cotton t-shirts 3 for $5 is a direct result of
trade." Then, challenging opponents of these "free" trade deals, he
asked "Do people really want all of our prices to go up at the
Wal-Mart?" The problem is, the whole line of argument is a classic
"when did you stop being a criminal?" question, as the entire premise
is dishonest.

Here is the truth: prices on many goods do go down because of
corporate-written trade deals, as the "free"-trade-pushing corporate
media is so happy to brag about. But so do wages, health care
benefits, union rights, pensions, environmental standards, and all
the rest of the economic standards that contribute to an ordinary
American's quality of life.

When you pass trade deals that have no labor/human
rights/environmental protections, you force Americans to compete with
workers in other countries that have none of these standards. That
puts a downward pressure on Americans' economic situation (wages,
health care, pensions, etc.), as our citizens are forced to sacrifice
their basic quality of life in an endless race to the bottom. No
savings on your next batch of t-shirts is going to make up for that.
That's why trying to make a debate over "free" trade into a debate
over whether we want or don't want lower prices is so dishonest:
because it doesn't tell the whole story.

The reason, of course, that Corporate America tries to distort the
"free" trade debate in this way is because it avoids the downside of
"free" trade Corporate America doesn't want to talk about. And the
tactics often work, because lower prices are more tangible to the
public than the other bigger and more important consequences of
"free" trade.

It is much easier to envision the benefits of cheaper t-shirts at
Wal-Mart than it is to imagine the downside of getting paid less
wages/benefits for the next 40 years, especially when you consider
citizens' understandable two-pronged defense mechanism of denial: we
don't want to admit the lower wages/benefits will come with lower
prices (too-good-to-be-true denial) and we'd like to believe lower
wages/benefits in general won't mean lower wages/benefits for us in
specific (it-won't-happen-to-me denial).

But all you have to do is look at how Americans' wages have
stagnated, health care/pension benefits have been cut, and how many
previously better-paid Wal-Mart workers are on low-income government
assistance to know that the denial is not rooted in reality.
Likewise, all it takes is a little guts to make this case effectively
because really, Americans know deep down that it's true - they are
just waiting for someone to speak truth to economic power.

Thus, when we debate trade and economic policy in general, let's
reject the silly argument that it is a debate between low prices on
one side and high prices on the other. The actual choice is between
lower prices on one side, and lower wages, health care benefits,
pensions, and environmental standards on the other side. It is a
debate about saving $2 on t-shirts at Wal-Mart vs. some combination
of making thousands of dollars less per year, maybe losing your job,
seeing your health care/retirements benefits eliminated or reduced,
and watching your community get polluted.

That is honest debate that Corporate America and its "free" trade
apologists in the political establishment don't want to have -
because it is a debate they will lose every time. The more we have
this honest debate, the more we can embolden already strong public
opposition to selling out America with corporate written trade pacts.
Sources: Corporate media now bragging about how CAFTA will supposedly
lower prices:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/12266762.htm
Americans wages stagnating: http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm?id=2012
Americans' health care
benefits getting cut:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1355250
Americans' pension benefits getting cut:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/050124/24pension.htm
Wal-Mart workers on government assistance:
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=112855
Polls show strong opposition to corporate-written trade deals:
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/05/poll-on-trade-follow-lou-dobbs-not-tom.html

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A True Voice of Opposition
--A Voice for Working People
--Not the Elite--
http://www.bernie.org/issues.asp

Who is Congressman Bernie Sanders?

Read this article and watch the short video clips:

http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/04/who-is-bernie-sanders.html

[wli]

1. "free trade" agreements are actually "wage arbitrage" agreements

More offshoring.