Free Trade

 Does everyone prosper with free trade?  According to Darren Prokop (UAA Department of Logistic), Alaska has the potential for further economic growth due to free trade.  In a recent class article Economists Rethink Free Trade by Jane Sasseen it noted, “Economists are, however, nothing that their ideas can’t explain the disturbing stagnation in income that much of the middle class is experiencing.”  The possibility of future stagnation in Alaska doesn’t seem to be the case but rather the opposite according to the lecture by Professor Darren Prokop.

In pursuing a policy of free trade here in America, I, however, would like to see the following items considered off limits in regards to free trade:

1.      Any loss of our National Soverignty to a foreign governing power or global governing power.

2.      Free trade that would jeopardize the American Farmer.  Without the American Farmer, our food security could be jeopardizing by unscrupulous countries, regimes, or terrorist organizations.

3.      Any loss of our manufacturing base that is directly related to our Military or our National Security.  National Security could possibly be major transportation systems within the U.S.A.

Although we may seek to follow the words of Thomas Jefferson, “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.” let us not forget the following words from George Washington, “There is a rank due to the United States among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure the peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.” 

Troy L. Carlock