Tag: Trade
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Why make the World’s poor fight anew for rights we know they need
Some like to think that poor countries are simply behind us on some capitalist prosperity trajectory, with welfare as an optional extra or ultimate prize. Yet our history was bloody and violent, and why would we want that? Why make the World’s poor fight for the same rights that our ancestors desperately needed to protect…
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Democratising global trade: here’s how
Consumption drives the world economy. The democracies still have about 70% of it, but this is set to decline. The proportion of people living in democracies has fallen below 50%. We should use our disproportionate purchasing power to promote democracy and human rights. By reforming/replacing the World Trade Organisation, we can give preferential market access to fellow democracies. This…
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Free markets work; free trade only benefits tyrants
Free markets liberated us from the overweening power of church and aristocracy and created a rights culture. Emile Durkheim established the constitutional, commercial and civil law that capitalism requires back in 1893. Free markets empower people with a choice of where to buy, work and live, and vendors compete with lower prices right down the…