MC rather enjoyed the free trade debate:
This was fantastic. Clearly one of the most substantive debates I’ve heard. Both of you made your points well and it really gave the audience the ability to truly focus on the subject matter and the pertinent points of each argument. I was impressed with Dr. Miller as he did not seem like your typical Academic, but really a guy that is interested in honest discussion (although naive). Would love to hear more of these.
I am of the opinion that Free trade works well in theory, in a perfect world with honest players, but such a world does not exist this side of heaven. I believe due to the fallen nature of man, protecting the nation-state is much more important than the benefits of open free trade, because of the eventual destruction of the culture and national identity. I think the founders understood this much better than us, which is why they advocated tariffs and an American First mindset.
Great debate, I was very impressed, this is really good stuff. More Please!
I’m glad everyone enjoyed it so much. I intend to keep doing this sort of thing and more at Brainstorm, and the more people that support Brainstorm by joining or simply showing up for the free events, the more high-quality guests like Dr. Miller and Dr. Hallpike will be interested in participating.
Speaking of the debate, some of you will recall that I felt the purely logical aspect of my critique of free trade could be improved and further refined. In that regard, a syllogism occurred to me that I believe succeeds in succinctly and conclusively refuting Dr. Miller’s corruption argument for free trade.
- Dr. Mill argues that free trade is beneficial because it reduces corruption by removing power from the hands of elected politicians and transferring it to the board members and executives of multinational corporations, who are presumed to be less corruptible than politicians by virtue of being answerable to the Invisible Hand of the free market.
- But it is the board members and executives of multinational corporations who are the primary actors responsible for corrupting the politicians.
- And the causal factor of the process of corruption is, obviously, more intrinsically corrupt than the various parties being corrupted by it.
- Therefore, Dr. Miller is incorrect, the hypothetical ability of the Invisible Hand to rein in the corruption of the corporate interests is insufficient, and free trade will tend to increase corruption by transferring power from state politicians to multinational corporate interests.
- Therefore, free trade is not beneficial.