Tuesday, July 19, 2005

GW's CAFTA Tour

Jeff Taylor at Reason comments on Bush's recent trip to Belmont, North Carolina:

[W]hat is it that has made the economic benefits of free trade such a tough sell in so many places? In addition to the security angle, it could be that the occasional presidential fly-by extolling the virtues of free trade just does not match the nearly daily drumbeat of large sacks of cash hitting the ground from state and local interests bent on providing business incentives.

While the president argues that agreements like CAFTA let economic resources move freely and efficiently to everyone's benefit, state and local officials scurry around "managing" the flow of jobs and prosperity to communities. This is a huge policy disconnect. North Carolina, for example, recently handed Dell at least $280 million to build a computer plant a short drive up I-85 from Bush's CAFTA rally.

If government can manage what amounts to domestic trade among the states so well, why not manage foreign trade as well, with similar incentives to businesses to keep jobs in the U.S.? The answer is you could, if you wanted a high tax, low-productivity, low-innovation economy, i.e. a fundamentally un-American economy. This is the bedrock pro-freedom argument that Bush did not really make in Belmont and cannot be made often enough.

I realize that politicians are required to "sell" policies to the masses in order to achieve desired ends. And to effectuate such sales, they must generally employ various (sometimes conflicting) arguments - most of which are small-box-utilitarian in nature as opposed to purely ideological. I just find it sad that "freedom," for its own sake, is such a hard sell.
Read the whole thing here.

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