Free Trade: Fight It, or Embrace It

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I think if you're going to take a hands-off approach in foreign policy, you have to take the same hands-off approach when it comes to telling other countries what their labor laws should be. Otherwise you contradict yourself.

You do have a point. Shouldn't other countries' governments be able to dictate the scope and nature of their own laws?

On a related note, it seems somewhat paternalistic to say, "We are opposed to companies sending jobs to third world countries on the grounds that those jobs entail the exploitation of the foreign laborers." Shouldn't the foreign laborers decide for themselves whether they want to be "exploited?" Working in a dirty and sometimes dangerous factory for 50 cents per hour might sound awful, but if it isn't better than other available options no one will work there.