Thursday, March 11, 2004

Economy trade and taxes Posted here Thursday, March 11, 2004 at 9:24:37 AM     On the economy:  The free trade issue intersects with internal national rules that make the rich richer. While it is true that "free trade" spreads wealth into third world countries, they too are highly structured so that elites benefit and the rest can actually lose out: averages look better but distribution is worse. The rise of china - and just about every where else - means that the US total will be a smaller percentage of total world production. We need to adapt to that force and "free trade" is probably part of the solution, but if tax policy and other benefits to the rich are not changed, the benefits will be too skewed. Note how the Forbes 400 have gotten richer as the country was in a recession and markets were down. Even free trade and tax reform are not enough. We need to think of a number of issues simultaneously. For example, Bush is not entrepreneurial. I can imagine a Kerry strategy that really supports business innovation and technical experimentation. We need more transactions with less environmental exploitation. ********