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22 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 21 May \ parent \ on: The Strange Moral Relativism of "Free Trade" econ
I have troubles with this idea, too. The way I look at it is that fruit from the poisoned tree is still poison. In other words, the subsidized goods are like stolen goods because they would not be selling as they are without the wherewithal to do it, when said wherewithal is taxes (stolen goods). The state should get out of the economy, completely and not be allowed to operate within it.
The problem is that all the Chinese people have are poisoned apples, because they aren't allowed to produce regular ones. I don't see how the just outcome is for them to not be allowed to trade, within the parameters they're confined too.
It's really tricky.
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The way I think about it is that the Chinese people (not the CCP members) are involved in either slavery or involuntary servitude and cannot escape. Now the point for me is whether we should punish them all or not by not trading with them. I have had prior experience with mass punishment and despise it, so I have troubles with the mass punishment idea. They have to free themselves and we cannot really help them in that, can we? BTW, I have had close contact with Chinese from China and do not trust a word they say, but I suspect that they were CCP Princes not everyday people. The common people seem to be much different.
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Yeah, the normal Chinese people I've known are great and in many ways are very similar to Americans (some good and some bad). They're also much more agoristic; as in, they casually ignore government edicts and go about their lives as best they can.
The idea of using "reciprocal" tariffs as a tool to lower the oppressive state interventions that act as non-tariff barriers is one I can get on board with. It just has to be clear the the rates will come down as free markets are restored.
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I don’t know if even that will work with the CCP! They don’t seem to give a good hot damn about what happens to the Chinese non-party normies, whether they live or die as long as they are controlled. The damage to their economy seems to be accruing to the normies, while the party members and state sponsored entities seem to be doing hunky-dory. It will be hard to break through that barrier for anybody but the Chinese normies, themselves.
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