[redmenace]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050514/ap_on_bi_ge/textile_cases_13&printer=1

This ranks right up there with steel tariffs.

You can't both promote free trade then restrict it.

[kode]

of course you can. it's called double standards.

[vyper]

I wonder if they realize how many small retailers will be sunk by this.

[Taristin]

Wee! Price of cotton goods is going to go up now too!

[Liberator]

I loathe how dependant the US has become on external locales, but this is just plain dumb.

Do you know why "Made in XXXX" is bought more than "Made in the USA"?  "Made in XXXX" is cheaper and usually of higher quality.  US made goods are over-priced thanks to such factors as unions, ect.  It's as simple as that.  I'd buy Made in USA stuff if it was competitve with foreign goods.

[redmenace]

Not everything are the unions fault. Even their existence in the textile industry here in the US can be blamed on the manifacturers and the downright deplorable conditions textile factories were in when textile unions cropped up particullarly in the south.

[Liberator]

Yes, but that was over a century ago.  Union do little now except artificially inflate prices and act as political lobby organizations.

[Rictor]

Yeah, and when the US and European factories unionized, the manufacturers moved overseas, where the conditions are as bad, usually worse, than during the early 20th century in the West, which is when you started to see unionization.

Originally posted by redmenace
You can't both promote free trade then restrict it.

Sure you can, as long as you're powerful enough not to have anyone to call you out on it. This is exactly the complaint of many "anti-globalization" groups, who just want to end hypocritical and highly harmful policies. If the US (and I say the US becuase all the administrations since Reagan have pushed free trade) wants free trade, then drop all the protectionist measures, and watch Chinese products undercut US goods, and businesses close down. Or if not, then it's only fair to let all countries be as protectionist as they want.

Originally posted by Liberator
Yes, but that was over a century ago.  Union do little now except artificially inflate prices and act as political lobby organizations.

Yeah, but if the unions disappeared, who is to say that things wouldn't revert back to the way they were? What is stopping it?

Closing unions is a race to the bottom. The point is not to have exploitation anywere, which in practical terms means unionization. Sure, they become corrupt over time, and bloated, but fundemantally they are needed. In fact, you could make the same arguement for the military, but that doesn't mean the concept of a military is unnecessary.

[redmenace]

However, if small countries acted protectionist, were concerned only about themselves and not about trading, other countries might be less inclined to export things to them that they cannot create on their own. That is not a defense of hypocrasy, but just a observation.

Truely free trade would benefit us all. Not this we demand free trade from the rest of the world but we will make petty political exceptions Industries such as Steel which totally deserve to go under for THEIR mistakes(ie they didn't retool when they should have, the negotiated crazy pensions for union workers).

[Liberator]

Do you honestly think is this day and age of the "Lawsuit Lottery" that a company could get away with abusing it's workers?

[redmenace]

People like OSHA get their marching orders from the top. If they are told to ignore something and to take it easy on violaters they will do just that. Not that companies set out to enslave their workers.

[vyper]

Originally posted by Liberator
Do you honestly think is this day and age of the "Lawsuit Lottery" that a company could get away with abusing it's workers?

Without unions, yes.