Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watdcsu.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watdcsu!dmcanzi From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: High Duties => Increased Competitiveness? Message-ID: <1722@watdcsu.UUCP> Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 19:31:37 EDT Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1722 Posted: Fri Oct 4 19:31:37 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 5-Oct-85 06:26:19 EDT References: <2591@watcgl.UUCP> Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi) Organization: University of Woolamaloo Lines: 52 Summary: In article <2591@watcgl.UUCP> jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) writes: >3. what happens to the (possibly up to 1 million according to the > cbc evening news) people who lose their jobs through free trade. By dwelling on the topic of Canadian jobs, opponents of free trade can make it look as if no harm results from quotas, except for a measly sum paid by consumers in the form of higher prices. They also make it look as if anybody who bitches about quotas is a stingy S.O.B. who just wants his lousy 5 bucks back. Well, I'll be honest: I *am* a stingy S.O.B. who wants his 5 bucks back. But I can also show you that the issue is not quite as black-and-white, from a moral point of view, as you think it is. When quotas/duties are introduced, the amount of foreign goods imported decreases. As a result, some of the people in other countries who produced these goods become "redundant". What happens to them? You can be forgiven for not noticing the unemployed foreigners, because nobody mentions them when free trade comes up for discussion. Those for free trade dwell on Canadian consumers' money, and those against dwell on Canadians' jobs. But now that you're aware of them, how can you reconcile exporting unemployment with your sense of morals? * * * On another matter, I'll admit that the figures I quoted are more relevant to the discussion if they are Canadian figures than if they are not. If they are not Canadian figures, they serve only as an example of quotas raising the prices, and of how carelessly implemented quotas can lead to a real absurdity. The statistics were quoted in a Canadian newspaper discussing Canadian import quotas, which suggests that the reporter who reported them though they were relevant to Canada. Also, the North-South Institute is located in Ottawa, which suggests that their purpose is to try to influence government policy. This is both a good reason to believe that they would only use Canadian economic statistics, and to suspect that they might slant the results of their studies by omitting relevant statistics which are not favourable to their position. (And this last consideration is why I want to get a copy of the study for myself.) A major point of my original article was that the people who bitch loudest in letters to the editor are usually successful businessmen with a vested interest in keeping quotas, and that these letters betray a level of ignorance about economics that is hard to believe in a successful businessman. Are they really as ignorant as they seem, or are they lying? I'll politely reserve judgement. -- David Canzi "It's Reagan's fault. Everything's Reagan's fault. Floods... volcanoes... herpes... Reagan's fault." -- Editor Overbeek, Bloom Beacon