FREE TRADE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Princeton economist and good guy journalist Paul Krugman in the New York Times:

First and foremost, we need more jobs. U.S. employment is at least four million short of where it should be. Imports and outsourcing didn't cause that shortfall, but if the job gap doesn't start closing soon, protectionist pressures will become irresistible.

Beyond that, we need to do much more to help workers who lose their jobs. It didn't help the cause of free trade when Republican leaders in Congress recently allowed extended unemployment benefits to expire, even though employment is lower and long-term unemployment higher than when those benefits were introduced.

And in the longer run, we need universal health insurance. Social justice aside, it would be a lot easier to make the case for free trade and free markets in general if, like every other major advanced country, we had a system in which workers kept their health coverage even when they happened to lose their jobs.

The point is that free trade is politically viable only if it's backed by effective job creation measures and a strong domestic social safety net.

In theory, I agree with the economic notion that free trade is good for the economy in the long run; it's the ravaging effects of the mad corporate dash to maximize profits that I have a problem with--unrestrained corporate globalism has both hastened environmental degradation worldwide, and displaced, enhungered, and impoverished millions. Krugman offers some simple suggestions that would go a long way toward allowing us to have our cake and eat it, too. Capitalism can be a socially just, well functioning economic system, but only with lots of support from the government. Alas, the mood in Washington seems to rule out such a thought these days.

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Thanks to WorkingForChange for the link.

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