• scarabic@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    “Free trade” means letting everyone do what they’re best at and then exchange the goods they produce. This is so that everybody is focused on what works best in their country, everything is done as well and as cheaply as possible. However this makes no guarantee about any one country’s ability, at the end of the day, to stand alone without dependencies on others for vital goods. In fact if anything it works against that.

    I don’t know why Trump talks about globalism as some Democrat thing. It’s his own party that has been driving for free trade since forever.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Are you saying that 10% of an economy is vital goods and the other 90% is not? Not that I have any numbers on this but 10% seems low to me.

      • Jikiya@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I don’t know about the numbers you present, but absolutely agree that some industries are just worth supporting, from a government perspective. Cannot be reliant on a geopolitical enemy for goods that allow your country to continue to function.

        I think Trump losing us allies is a travesty, but there’s no guarantee during a global conflict you can get items from said allies.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      All abstract ideas are good, and those with less assumptions are more abstract, but the problem is - nobody wants purely abstract ideas.

      Pretty Victorian conditions in factories producing all those nice things we have, for example, would not be acceptable in USA.

      Which means that this abstract idea is somehow mixed and divided with a border with another abstract idea.

      Differently in one place and in another.

      OK, I’m using a boring and long way to say that some things have to be balanced. Bad labor conditions allow cheaper production, skewing competitive balance. Tariffs or something like that can in theory balance it out back again.

      EDIT: And yes, both globalism and American conservatism and what not are only in appearances divided along party lines, in fact they seem to be evenly split. Like with hedge funds, that’s what makes your two-party system stable.

    • Amoxtli@thelemmy.clubOP
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      3 months ago

      Trump is a former democrat. Many in his administration are former democrats. Trump isn’t a liberal. Both Republicans and Democrats are liberal. Trump is a nationalist. Trump is not a liberal Republican.