Why Not Free Trade?

     It would be one thing to shoot to shit the stupid arguments of people like pro-trade Republicans who claim that only through riches do we find Democracy.  It is more important, however, to make the positive argument, why is free trade with tyranny a bad idea.

     First, what is tyranny?  I will use China as an example because so much effort was expended by corporate America to get Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China.  Here is Nader's group, the pro-PNTR US China Org, Human Rights Watch, and the vote tally from ConservativeUSA. 

     China is basically a one-party state, and kills political activists.  All unions are organized by the party, and you can be killed for trying to start an independent union.  The top ranks of the Chinese government is self-selecting, i.e. the last dictator chooses his own succesor, often by gaining enough power to purge opposition figures from government, if not from life itself. 

     Which is going to be cheaper, labor in a free country,

• where people can (ostensibly) unite to demand higher wages,
• are free to politically agitate,
• and are regulated by alternating powers who form a check on each other's excesses,

or China, where none of this is the case?

     Obviously, a dictatorship has not a marginal but an absolute advantage in all trade relations.

     Representative S Brown (D-OH) seems to be the most vocal voice in Congress against this type of stupidity.

     I would like to be in Congress fighting against the stupidity of "free" trade with "slave" peoples.

     UPDATE: No sooner did I finish this than C-SPAN aired former Democratic Reprentative of Florida, James Bacchus, pontificating that trade = freedom.  He is a freaking one-note wonder.  He argues for Trade Adjustment Assistance.

     UPDATE2: C-SPAN 3 ran five hours on trade this day.  Two airings of J Sununu(R) and a M Cantor(D) arguing for more trade.  Two of J Bacchus(D) arguing for trade with more TAA, and one of a woman who blamed problems that emerge after trade opens up on ethnic hatreds.  Fuck C-SPAN on trade.