Walls may have ears but they don't have eyes
Holistic Spinner (I hope)
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human greed will always beat human ideals, it would seem.
Walls may have ears but they don't have eyes
Walls may have ears but they don't have eyes
Written by :Mascot
Tariffs and subsidies do an enormous amount to keep the poor world poor. Africa is a mainly agricultural producer. In the west we (both the E.U. and America) give enormous agricultural subsidies that support overproduction and depress world prices. This makes it very hard for Africa to export any crops. If we could abolish agricultural subsidies or at least decouple them from production (on which there has been some progress in the E.U.) then African produce would be much more competitive and would fetch a higher price.
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In what ways do NAFTA and the WTO fail to promote "proper" free trade? The W.T.O. just does it very badly and very slowly but thats the price you pay for having a global organization. So many members with so many different objectives makes for beurocracy and inertia, but it's better than nothing and better than a small organization where some members just dictate terms.
You say deals are struck with so many caveats and conditions that they are no longer free trade and I agree, but deals being struck at all is progress. It would be worse if there were no deals and each country were able to arbitrarily impose tariffs and restrictions.
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Imagine we were to ban trade. Would that help anyone?
If we built a wall around Africa and nothing came in or out would the world be a better place?
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You say that we will never achieve free trade. Free trade is like perfect competition, it's an idea that you can aim for.
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Fair trade will never save the world. Who determines "fair" if not the forces of supply and demand? Fair trade amounts to buying a good and simultaneously giving a small charitable donation to a project. Laudable indeed but fair trade is charity and we shouldn't forget that.
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For a while the price of coffee beans dropped below the cost of production. Coffee farmers were working all year and making a loss. This was because of over-production, there were simply too many people growing coffee. If you decide that you want to support this state of affairs then you create a sector dependent on subsidies and hand-outs, and you might find you have a lot of excess coffee that nobody wants on your hands.
Holistic Spinner (I hope)
the best smiles are the ones you lead to
Written by :Mascot
This is not a world where everyone is fighting for their slice and greedy rich countries can grab a larger piece of the pie
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. A richer third world would enrich us all. See how China growing out of poverty and coming of age as an industrial economy has helped keep prices down here in the west?
A richer Africa would enrich us all.
Holistic Spinner (I hope)
Written by :StoutWritten by
human greed will always beat human ideals, it would seem.
In my experience, 99.9% of the time I've found that to be true however I do find it interesting to see that said by the one person who in both IRL and the online community actually lives his ideology.
Cheers Rob, I read your Missouri thread.
Holistic Spinner (I hope)
Written by :bluecat
....when you get an environmentally conscious and eco-crusading lovely hippy who says 'oooh! i can fly to barcelona for £2!' you tend to get a bit jaded....
"Lots of beeping. And shaking and tinfoil." Chelly
"Are you sure it's a genuine test and not a robot heroin addict?" Cantus
---set free by the rather lovely FireTom---
--(right arm owned by Fyre)--
Walls may have ears but they don't have eyes
Holistic Spinner (I hope)
the best smiles are the ones you lead to
Walls may have ears but they don't have eyes
Walls may have ears but they don't have eyes
Holistic Spinner (I hope)
Laugh Often, Smile Much, Post lolcats Always
the best smiles are the ones you lead to
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