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Title: KARL MARX: " I Vote In Favor Of Free Trade "
Source:
MECW Volume 6, p. 450
URL Source: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/01/09ft.htm#marx
Published: Jan 9, 1848
Author: Karl Marx
Post Date: 2008-01-15 05:26:00 by Uncle Bill
Keywords: Karl, Marx Loved, Free Trade
Views: 103
Comments: 3
On the Question of Free Trade MECW Volume 6, p. 450; Works of Karl Marx 1848 Speech to the Democratic Association of Brussels at its public meeting of January 9, 1848 Excerpt: Lost Or Unrecognized Multi-National Economic Principles And Slavery One can see temptations in the paragraphs above, at various levels, to make short term individual financial killings at considerable long term overall cost to the economic entirety. In fact, the brokers become permanently wealthy while everyone else gets destroyed after a delayed period. The broker has financial motivation to destroy the country. Other people want something for nothing, providing similar motivation. The long term economic cost is disastrous." Marx was horrificly mistaken in his belief that he could construct an alternative communist utopia, If there is anything clearly exposed in political economy, it is the fate attending the working classes under the reign of Free Trade. All those laws developed in the classical works on political economy, are strictly true under the supposition only, that trade be delivered from all fetters, that competition be perfectly free, not only within a single country, but upon the whole face of the earth. These laws, which A. Smith, Say, and Ricardo have developed, the laws under which wealth is produced and distributed — these laws grow more true, more exact, then cease to be mere abstractions, in the same measure in which Free Trade is carried out. And the master of the science, when treating of any economical subject, tells us every moment that all their reasonings are founded upon the supposition that all fetters, yet existing, are to be removed from trade. They are quite right in following this method.... Thus it can justly be said, that the economists — Ricardo and others — know more about society as it will be, than about society as it is. They know more about the future than about the present. If you wish to read in the book of the future, open Smith, Say, Ricardo. There you will find described, as clearly as possible, the condition which awaits the working man under the reign of perfect Free Trade. Take, for instance, the authority of Ricardo, authority than which there is no better. What is the natural normal price of the labour of, economically speaking, a working man? Ricardo replies, “Wages reduced to their minimum — their lowest level.”... Either you must disavow the whole of political economy as it exists at present, or you must allow that under the freedom of trade the whole severity of the laws of political economy will be applied to the working classes. Is that to say that we are against Free Trade? No, we are for Free Trade, because by Free Trade all economical laws, with their most astounding contradictions, will act upon a larger scale, upon a greater extent of territory, upon the territory of the whole earth; and because from the uniting of all these contradictions into a single group, where they stand face to face, will result the struggle which will itself eventuate in the emancipation of the proletarians.... ~Frederick Engels, The Free Trade Congress at Brussels, October 9, 1847 U.S. departing the First World Mulally: Global Boeing must share Competitiveness demands that the new, more global Boeing Co. share its work and its wealth with workers around the world, the company's highest-ranking Pacific Northwest executive said Tuesday in Tacoma. Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, said Boeing can't act like British colonialists extracting wealth from other countries and exporting it all back home. Mulally, speaking to The News Tribune editorial board, said that with 70 percent of Boeing's commercial airplanes sold to airlines operating outside the United States, Boeing has an obligation to build parts of its aircraft overseas. "We just operate everywhere," he said. "We need to include everybody around the world in the asset utilization. They buy our products and pay up. We can't just extract wealth from other countries and pay ourselves. "And the United States has no divine right to our standard of living," Mulally added, defending Boeing's overseas parts production. The issue of performing work overseas is a sensitive area with Puget Sound Boeing workers who have made limiting out-sourcing one of their top priorities in ongoing labor negotiations. The Boeing executive said the company wants to concentrate on what it does best: design, sales, marketing and large-scale integration of complex products. "Competitiveness is at the top - the very top - of our agenda. Whatever we choose to do, we have to do it and add value better than anybody else in the world. "Because that's what we believe in. That's capitalism. That's market forces." Mulally said Boeing's skill at large-scale system integration is unique. "Very few people in the world can build an airplane and make it safe. So the most important thing that we do is product development, sales, marketing, new airplanes, new services and taking care of our customers." Mulally said doing what the company does best may well mean farming out more parts production elsewhere. "We just operate in this very global enterprise. Does that mean over time that we'll make less parts? We keep gravitating where we can add more value. "Does that mean we can include everybody that we can? Absolutely. Does that mean we will keep nurturing our business with China and Singapore and Japan? Absolutely. Is that good for business? Absolutely. Do we want to include everybody that we can? Absolutely." The Boeing chief said he's eager to see the Puget Sound area solve some of its infrastructure and competitiveness issues so it will be more attractive to businesses. Mulally headed a statewide competitiveness council that recommended solutions to the Legislature. The penchant for government to repeatedly study what to do and how to finance those improvements and then fail to act is particularly frustrating, he said. "The most important question is not about transportation, it's not about permitting, it's not about regulation. It's about whether we, the people of the state of Washington - not Boeing - are going to keep pulling together and have great debates, and at the end of the day move forward together. "I've never seen a set of people who want a proven solution all mapped out before we can more forward with it." Mulally said he hopes Boeing's layoffs are nearly done. The company has laid off or issued warning notices to more than 28,000 workers. Mulally in September said the company would lay off about 30,000 workers because of the aftereffects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But even if aircraft orders return to more normal levels, Mulally predicted, the company's payroll won't return to former levels. Boeing will add workers very conservatively. Increasing productivity will ultimately mean fewer jobs, he said.
By Karl Marx
January 9, 1848;
First published: as a pamphlet in Brussels, February 1848. 
"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade."
Karl Marx, "On the Question of Free Trade" - January 9, 1848
"There is a tendency for people arguing that unlimited free trade will provide cheap goods to employ the same type of vague superficial unquantified non-followed-up logic used to argue for perpetual motion machines which always look like they work in terms of superficial verbal constructs, but don't work under detailed quantitative analysis.
But in his analysis of the socio-economic consequences of unbridled free trade, he was in complete agreement with Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
The News Tribune ^ | 02/07/02 | John Gillie
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#1. To: christine, Jethro Tull (#0)
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Press 1 for English, Press 2 for English, Press 3 for deportation Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”
thanks, Uncle Bill, i admit to being a proud protectionist and isolationist. ;)
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#2. To: Uncle Bill (#0)
#3. To: christine (#2)
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