I believe the number one issue reducing
the quality of life around the globe is Xenophobia.
Xenophobia can be writ small or large.  It is just
plainly antiquated in the year 2007.
I think the whole issue is addressed very well in
Bryan Caplan's book " The Myth of the Rational Voter:
Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies"  I have mentioned it
before.  I admire Xiaofan's questioning.  I am sure more
investigation will show how correct I am. heh heh
Cedric

On Jul 3, 2007, at 7:09 PM, Xiaofan Chen wrote:

On 7/3/07, Vitaliy <spam@maksimov.org> wrote:
> As Cedric has pointed out, it's not the government's job to  
> maintain and
> improve the economy. Not in a capitalist country, anyway. And when the
> government does make it its job, you get USSR and North Korea.

I think it is at least part of the job of the government. In fact I  
think all
capitalist countries are doing it.

> The reason this logic doesn't make sense to me, is because if  
> you're good at
> what you do (make steel, write programs, et cetera) YOU DON'T NEED
> protection. If you need protection, YOU'RE NOT GOOD at what you do.

"You are not good at what you do" does not mean that "you do not need
to do it".  Actually what government does is not alway correct but  
sometimes
they just got to do it. I still believe certain protection is  
unavoidable. Even
though the policy may not seem to be right from

>
> The real solution to "soften the blow" and protect the workers, is  
> to give
> them an education. In reality, it is many times cheaper to give  
> every one of
> the steel workers free college education, than to keep them  
> employed in the
> steel mill.
>

Is it possible? What if the steel worker has not finished his primary  
education?

>
> Trade is not a zero-sum game. Everybody who plays the game, wins.

I tend to agree with this. The problem is that there is no country  
which is
really practising "free trade".

> IMO, xenophobia is the reason why most people are opposed to free  
> trade.

I do not think so.

Do not get me wrong, I am all for free trade. But I do think those  
who are
against it have their points as well. Free trade is really  
complicated for us
engineers. ;-)
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