Free Trade: Fight It, or Embrace It

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

I don't think anyone is looking down on factory workers. In fact, I think you'll find that most, if not all, of us have a great deal of admiration and sympathy for factory workers. That some of us believe that certain jobs aren't sustainable in the U.S. is not a statement of belief about any workers, it is a statement of belief about the realities of the new global economy.

I think a fundamental problem with our country is that we expect the government to be able to "fix" just about everything. Anytime something goes wrong, we blame the government. We consume energy at an astronomical rate by driving SUVs, living in the suburbs and commuting 2 hours per day, keeping our thermostats at 78 degrees in the dead of winter, etc. and yet we complain to the government about the cost of oil. We fill our bodies with all sorts of toxins, live sedentary lifetsyles, smoke cigarettes, fail to take preventative steps to ward of illness, etc. and complain about the cost of health care. We want buy the cheapest goods regardless of where or how they are manufactured and yet we don't understand why U.S. companies are shipping jobs abroad. We complain about all sorts of things when the blame for many of our woes lies squarely on our own backs.

That's not to say our government should do nothing and has no place in regulating the market, corporations, etc., but we need to stop eating our cake and then complaining about cake shortages.

Well said.

Of course, if we run out of cake - we can always have pie.