The Free Trade Lie by Louis Evan Palmer
In the dogma of the marketeers, free enterprise and unencumbered trade is the elixir of prosperity and the guarantor of freedom. In reality, it is no such thing. A great debt is owed to Chalmers Johnson in clearly and unequivocally exposing this truth in his book "The Sorrows of Empire". As he points out, "... none of the world's twenty-four reasonably developed capitalist nations... got where they are today by following... globalization doctrine." (pg 262, Metropolitan Books, 2004)
In fact, those countries, led by the United States, preach and pontificate to the poorer nations, telling them self-serving falsehoods while denying them the same growth and maturation techniques that they used; what Chalmers Johnson categorizes as "kicking away the ladder".
Yet, "between 1790 and 1940, the United States was probably the most highly-protected economy on earth" (pg 263).
Thus, for 150 years, with the multitudinous resources and advantages that the United States had, it still had to protect its industries and infrastructure.
The devastation caused by this facile false doctrine to countries like Argentina and Indonesia is appalling and criminal. Surely, the War Crimes tribunal should enlarge its scope to encompass economic war crimes as well because only the term "war" can adequately describe the malice and impact these "policies" have had. And it is very premeditated.
In 1981, the United States decided that action was needed to "discredit state-assisted capitalism" such as practised in Japan and South Korea. It was nothing more than ensuring subservience and economic peonage. At the same time, America embarked on a campaign to "weaken the sovereignity of Third World nations". This is the type of aggressive war that was declared illegal at Nuremberg except that as an economic war, it is currently allowed.
"Economic war" and "trade policies" may sound clinical and somewhat harmless but in practice, it means grinding poverty for millions while vast wealth accrues to an ensconced elite and their minions. In addition, most of the people in the wealthy nations will not see any of these ill-gotten gains. Instead we see criminal overlords, skilled in subterfuge and misdirection, posing as cultured and educated, while stealing from and impoverishing hundreds of millions. We see speculation gone wild, infiltrating every facet of our economy, obfuscating every attempt at rational discourse as its purveyors create phony wealth and exchange it by whatever means necessary for real wealth.
The Free Trade Lie, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have been published in numerous publications.
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