How to silence your friendly neighborhood free trader, quickly. Several times over, in fact.

[Zalatix]

Free traders come up with a lot of reasons for why we should discriminate against American workers for the good of America. Every time their arguments self-immolate it's natural to assume that another talking point will take its place.

However there are some aspects of reality to which they have no answer.

Here are a few that I've tested in real life and found that even economics professors get left stuttering like Porky Pig.

1. Ask them about their absolute contempt for American workers. Ask them why they ignore the plight of America's poor in their relentless propagandizing about the poor in other nations. Ask them about our jobless and homeless Americans who want for a job.

2. You might also want to point out the fact that globalism sends more jobs out of the country than it brings in. Even a basic study of the non-oil trade deficit shows that. America is the world's largest market for manufacturing exports and American workers have little to no stake in that. China's market is growing and American workers are flatly locked out of that market. Unless you're a chicken farmer, that is. Again, you can verify that by looking at the trade deficit: $245 billion in 2010 without factoring in oil imports. Free traders don't care about that. They believe that discriminating against American workers is somehow good for American workers. But you won't get them to say it.

3. Free traders claim that tariffs will raise the price of goods domestically. Yet they get silent real fast when you point out that the dollar is inherently being devalued by offshoring - which means the cost of imports is doomed to rise anyway. (And in many cases they already are.) Free traders won't have anything to say to this...why? Because even the reserve banks know it's true: http://www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/1999/9910.html

4. Not only are you already seeing this reality at the gas pump, but you will soon see it when you try to buy iPads - because workers in other nations are demanding higher wages. See, this is the death knell for globalism - for globalism to work, other nations' workers must remain dirt poor. When that is no longer true then you must find another sucker nation to provide dirt cheap labor. What happens when we run out of sources for cheap labor? Your prices go up, just like they would if we had tariffs. Free traders have nothing to say to that.

5. Free trade is inherently contributing to the national debt. Particularly, foreign-held debt, which no domestic budget cuts in the world can fix. Again, you are guaranteed silence on this from the free trader crowd. Why? Because it's pretty much a law of economics: http://industryweek.com/articles/u-s-_free_trade_policy_causes_trade_deficits_federal_debt_25366.aspx?ShowAll=1

For those who think foreign-held debt isn't all that big a problem - ask Greece, they can tell you otherwise.

6. And finally, globalism inherently discriminates against American workers by almost completely blocking them from access to the job market, to the point of companies hiring low paid H1B/J1 workers to displace Americans in America. (Case in point: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/foreign-students-walk-off-hershey-factory-job-protest-214310205.html)

How militantly is globalism blocking Americans out of the job market? Here's one example.

Ever notice how the free traders are totally silent about all of this?

It's because American workers don't matter to the pro-globalists. Everyone else matters, but not Americans. After all, we need to lower our standard of living. Perhaps we should all be diving in dumpsters before we get those outsourced jobs back?

Oh, I forgot. Outsourcing American jobs somehow brings us new, better paying jobs. Yet the only jobs it has brought us is Wal Mart cashiers and checkers. Which at some point soon we will be automating. Where are all those high-paying jobs that offshoring was supposed to bring us? Or was the whole point that we should be made poorer to help the third world? Ah, doesn't matter. Free trade arguments have no answer for that.

[dkf]

1. Tell that to people who buy Chinese goods aka most of us.

Without free trade people would undoubtedly have less stuff. People have voted for free trade with their pocket books and that is the only vote that registers.

People are free to buy more expensive American products as I am contemplating when looking at new cabinets. But in our disposable and trend driven lifestyle cheaper shorter lived products works better.

The point is we have a choice and are free to make those choices.

[saras]

2. You could choose to just not buy stuff. It's not required, after all

Yes, I'm serious. It's possible, and desirable, to live a functional life as a professional and raise happy, healthy kids, without being consumers. It's no harder than graduating from a good college, or getting the job you want instead of the easy offer.

But for some reason, lots of "liberals" get really annoyed when we hold them responsible for the consequences of their choices.

[Warpy]

6. Children tend to resent being sent to school naked and shoeless.

Remember, we make little clothing and even the cloth from which to make clothing should we choose to do so at home. The textile industry was exported three decades ago. We no longer make shoes except for the military and a few niche markets.

Now you were saying about that responsibility you're laying on people for being consumers?

We were never consulted about offshoring our industry and throwing people out of good paying jobs and into low paid, dead end service jobs.

It is not our fault and any picklefaced attempt to say it is will be doomed to failure.

[newspeak]

3. well some of us actually do attempt to find items bought in the US

I remember way back when the song "look for the union label." And you know what? Our family did look for the union label.

I believe in FAIR trade, not free trade. these corporations move to countries where they can exploit labor and the environment; when the workers start pushing back, the corporation makes a move to another country where they can do the same damn thing.

People talk about how the item is cheaper made with exploited labor. Everything comes around full circle. If people had decent paying jobs, then paying a little more for an item is no problem. Also, some of these companies, like rockport, have been penalized for upping the prices of their product by 300% and more. So, it makes little difference of cheap labor, when the company is going to charge a high price to maximize profits.

When you have ceos making 400 times the average worker, when it is way less in other industrialized nations; this country has a major problem with corruption and out right greed.

Yeah, well some of us still try to buy american made items, silly us. Oh, right, we're supposed to be the new service industry, forget those stinkin manufacturing jobs. How's the service industry working for ya? McDonalds hiring?

[Zalatix]

4. Same here. Actually, in many cases, we do without.

For instance I'm simply not getting a tablet at all.

[OhioChick]

5. Big K&R n/t

[Zorra]

7. +1

[Gold Metal Flake]

8. "...another talking point will take its place."

Twice in the responses already!

[Zalatix]

9. Explain to blue blooded American workers that they're being discriminated against

and these new talking points become laughably insignificant.

Especially these new talking points about "why don't you buy American-made stuff?"

Hell, we've already got a resurgence in the popularity of Made in the USA. "Imported from Detroit", anyone?