Free Trade in the Upcoming Election

Free trade is a sticky issue for politicians, and the reason is because the vast majority of people don't understand economics. Free trade is a good thing over all. Free trade is not what has caused U.S. jobs to move out of the country. The reason jobs have moved out of the U.S. is because we have not had free trade.

That's right. I said it. The reason U.S. jobs have moved overseas is actually because the value of the U.S. dollar has not been allowed to fluctuate according to actualy demand. If it had, our massive deficits would have long ago driven the value of the dollar down further than they are now, an act that would have made U.S. labor cheaper in comparison to foreign labor.

As a result of allowing free trade of goods but artificially setting currency values, U.S. labor and goods prices are artificially high to the rest of the world, and foreign labor and goods prices are artificially cheap within the U.S. The result has been that the rest of the world has taken over a lot of the cheap manufacturing that used to be done in the U.S., and American consumers have had much cheaper products that have allowed us to have a standard of living far above almost everyone else on Earth.

But it was a situation that couldn't last, and it won't last. You can't have free trade of goods without free trade of currencies. That's what consumers—and voters—need to understand.

Since the American workers don't understand the economics of the situation, all they see is that Free Trade of Goods hurts them, and they want to put a stop to it. But Free Trade is a good thing, not a bad thing, as it helps raise the standard of living everywhere, but only if it is truly Free Trade.

In the current Presidential election, there are three major candidates left standing, and their positions on free trade run the gamut. John McCain supports free trade and wants to keep NAFTA and CAFTA. Barrack Obama is at the other end of the spectrum, and wants to pull out of both. I don't know if it's because he also does not understand the economics or because he does, but he panders to the voters even though what they want will hurt them in the long run. Hillary Clinton is walking the middle of the road, saying that NAFTA and CAFTA should be reviewed and modified as necessary, which may actually be the right answer.

I still haven't picked which candidate I support in this election, because at this point I don't think there's a seriously bad candidate left. Obama's stance on Free Trade bothers me a little bit. McCain's pandering to the far-right bugs me, especially since I know that he's going against his own principles in order to win an election. But I'm going to reserve my judgment on McCain until I see who he picks for veep. Clinton I'm not sure about, but I didn't mind Bill Clinton's economic policies, so we'll see.