Protectionism, War, and the Southern Tradition | Lew Rockwell (1994)

[@theethicsofliberty4642]

How much more accessible food could be if there were no protectionism ... "That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen" ...

[@dameanvil]

00:01 🗣 The language used in politics and economics often distorts meanings, as seen in the redefinition of terms like "investment" and "rights" over time. 01:10 💼 Free trade historically meant unrestricted buying and selling across borders, benefiting the general good but has been distorted by government interventions favoring specific interests. 03:00 🌍 Protectionism, contrary to free trade, involves government interference in trade either independently or through alliances, disrupting natural liberty. 04:11 🌐 Post-World War II, trade's meaning shifted at Bretton Woods, leading to international economic relations as deals between nations, elevating central planning. 05:36 📜 Misus and others resisted the International Trade Organization (ITO) to preserve free trade, highlighting the dangers of global bureaucracies controlling trade. 07:51 🌍 Southern free traders like Calhoun linked free trade with states' rights, opposing tariffs as violations of political self-determination and harming southern agriculture. 11:19 🏛 The tariff debates mirrored early conflicts over centralized power, echoing concerns of taxation without representation and tyranny. 16:38 💰 Southern opposition to tariffs stemmed from economic losses, viewing them as benefiting Northern industrialists at the South's expense, threatening their autonomy. 20:24 🛡 Calhoun's defense of free trade linked it to safeguarding Southern political rights, emphasizing trade's necessity for the South's survival and autonomy. 22:00 ⚔ The Civil War had trade implications, with the South aiming for free trade through secession, viewing high tariffs as economic oppression. 23:42 💼 Current trade policies continue to deviate from genuine free trade, with significant political forces supporting agreements favoring corporate interests over public opinion. 25:06 🌐 NAFTA's consequences include US interventions like trade threats against Japan, a fund supporting the Mexican peso, and extensive foreign aid to Mexico, akin to Hamilton's policies, indicative of statism. 25:33 🛠 NAFTA restricts the reduction of labor and environmental regulations, even for retention or attraction of investments, violating the principles of flexible regulations for economic growth. 26:00 🌍 NAFTA's imperialist nature imposes regulations on other countries, promoting a specific economic model detrimental to genuine free trade advocated by historical figures like Jefferson and Calhoun. 26:43 🏢 The World Trade Organization (WTO) misrepresented as promoting free trade, actually focuses on economic management, sustainable development agendas, and global economic policy coherence, diverging from genuine trade liberalization. 27:40 🗽 Jefferson, Randolph, Taylor, and Calhoun viewed nationalism as a unifying force against distant rulers, advocating free trade as crucial for civilization, peace, and countering tyranny, albeit a different kind of tyranny in their day compared to contemporary centralized governments.

[@aslkdjfzxcv9779]

somebody, somewhere should do something about all this government.

[@adrianainespena5654]

Rights became synonimous with Goverment power when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, unless you think that black slaves deserve no rights. Do not talk about the Southern Tradition if you do not mention the peculiar institution.

[@TheEngineerd]

Who was going to adjudicate between conflicting rights besides the government?

[@lightcaesar]

Blacks were enslaved in Yankee Land, as well. There were STILL enslaved blacks in some parts of the north even after passage of the 13th Amendment. Just part of the Yankee Tradition...

[@adrianainespena5654]

@@lightcaesar Do you know the difference between a bug and a feature? The remaining slaves in the NOrth were a bug in the system, that could be corrected. In the South slavery was the basis of their economy. A tradition that cannot survive without slavery is not what I call a beacon of liberty.