trading

Majority of states have the political mix. Urban areas and academia are typically liberal. Suburban areas and the rest are typically conservative. Look at all the counties that vote. Typically counties that contain cities vote liberal.

Yes, for the most part immigrants are here to succeed. When people watch the Hispanics that went through the so-called boycott in California 2 years ago, that's really the minority (no pun intended, I mean in numbers). About half the minorities there are against Prop 187. Pete Wilson was against it and they thought it was gonna be his downfall. Nope. Schwarzenegger went with similar props and he got flattened and he woke up after that.

Yes, overall, I support free trade, concept-wise...as long as there's at least some oversight, and there really is nothing wrong with it, as long as it's not at socialistic levels or we're not getting benefited. I guess that defeats the fact I support FREE trade. Kinda like those gun supporters. They support the 2nd Amendment but they don't think it really hurts anyone to have background checks for purchasers.

Now...don't get me wrong, competition is good, as well as for education, health care, etc. It's not competition anymore, though, when one side is totally benefiting and nothing is happening on the other side. With trade, we need to be careful that we don't be too free on it, because there are certain things that don't need to go elsewhere. It's like business, there's nothing wrong with leveraging where we get the better end of the deal. That's not happening now for the most part.

For Japan, I don't view them as enemies, but rather economic competitors. Japan did the same thing to us back in the 80s. Oh, I said "union" as in EU. The EU is one big union and there really is no sovereignty in Europe anymore.

Examples with China? 'bless...space, technology, and military is all that's needed. I guess I could talk about other things. I predicted the Islamic terrorists were gonna strike us and it happened. I'm predicting the Chinese will try as well. They really don't care about anyone's considerations with their military tests. Plenty of their missile tests have near contacted US and Russian sources as well as the space shuttle itself. Actually, China is just plain reckless in everything, period.

I'll keep beating this which is annoying everyone. The Chinese keep undervaluing their currency for the last 2 decades which makes it more expensive for us to export there and cheaper the other way around, which helps them. But...that's free trade for you. We can always stop trading with them, but wait, that disrupts free trade. US capital is freer now than ever before in this globalization, which makes companies here to ship jobs across to save money...and regulations...and taxes...and lawsuits...etc.

I fully understand your viewpoint of "tough shit." I'm fully aware American labor now has to compete. But I asked this before, again, how? What? We start working for less? Thus making our living costs and mortgages suffer? Or in my previous blog do we just look for another career instead of engineering, manufacturing, trucking, warehousing, high-tech, analysts, researchers, designers, accountants, etc.? This whole time these foreigners are working US capital and technology, what do we do? All this being said, China and India will become superpowers and we will probably slip behind.

Again, I asked this twice, what is really being traded when our jobs are going elsewhere? You ask me for specifics, I ask you now, how are we benefiting? Because that's the essence you describe right? I think what free tradists are overlooking now is that today's events are disproportional to the assumptions, theories, and definitions of free trade back in who knows when.

Principles of free trade just does not hold when all production is considered mobile. The factors, capitals, technologies, etc. will go to countries that have the best advantage (huge supplies of cheap/willing labor) and those countries will gain - everyone else will lose. This in turn drives down wages, salaries, employment here. The dollar is already losing value (why else would all these gold commercials keep popping up), as wages go down, prices won't (not directly related), so our living standards decline.

There is no empirical evidence supporting free trade as advantageous. It's all from the past. This is why I keep questioning Bush's conservatism. Sure, he cut taxes and is a proponent of free trade (obvious with the biggest deficit ever, but I know, that doesn't matter), but spending is out of control and there's huge wage differences between us and most of Asia. You can cut so much taxes and lower interest rates, but it won't compensate.

Yes, I'm fully aware we shouldn't trade military deals with China, but it's obvious we're helping them financially to develop their own or scrap our parts. People seem to forget how Clinton dealt with China and how it hurt us. But hey, that's free trade you support. I'm kidding there :) - he basically gave them money - in turn he got votes.

About CEOs, I use this consistently beacuse the majority of them are looking to save money - understandable. If that means freely trading with everyone to save money in their pockets as the goal, so be it. Just stating facts when I mention "CEO" to exemplify what free trade is doing.

So again, finally, how are we benefiting from this? Since you say free trade is making everyone smile. The essence is being #1? Then why am I getting stomped on when I say we should try to get the better deal?

About Iran...it was as recent as the 90s when the people (oops, citizens, I try to sway away from the govt) were pro-American, probably weren't gung-ho, but they were moderate, like Turkey. Tehran was flourishing. Did we have major problems with Iran between Khomeini being in the media and Ahmadinejad being in the media? My bad saying pro-American, but they were moderate, and almost westernizing.