Does free trade cause poverty?

Question

straight up question, input anyone?

Answer 1

Yes of course, because the living standard and the prices and cost of raw materials is not the same in all countries.
Example the textile prices in china are very cheap comparing to Europe and America, so if you open the market for the Chinese textile, the textile industry in Europe and America will collapse. Then you can imagine how many peoples will be jobless as a result…

Answer 2

Cause poverty? of course not, look at India and China. It is growing a middle class in those countries that has never existed.

I did a project at University a year or two back and I found that in 2004, 6 million Indians went on an overseas holiday. In 2020, it was estimated to be 50million.

Do you think that rise is because suddenly people decide to travel? or because there is a huge growth in people being able to afford to travel?

You know what globalisation, industrial age etc etc has created? A majority middle class (in countries that have developed) That has NEVER existed anywhere, in the course of human history.

Of course it will in the short term make some people poorer and some richer, because of how it works out. Any jobs lost in america for textiles are 1) easily made up in the growth of China.

Bet you were not thinking of poverty as a world wide issue! anyone?

Has technology increase poverty? 1000's of workers have been replaced by machines. But thousands more jobs have been created in I.T.

Its simple economics. Free trade increases total welfare of all countries, it produces more goods, sells them cheaper, consumers save money, producers make more profit, sell more goods, hire more workers.

Notice the richest nations in the world are the ones that began trading together in large quantites in the 19th Century?

All nations involved with trade agreements economics are growing, many many are experiencing record low in unemployment.

Some people will be worse off, its never easy, its actually called "creative destruction" but society is better off, and if measure, society as a whole is more better off than some people are worse off

Sure some Americans lose jobs, many more poorer people gain jobs, much needed jobs that means they can afford food, clothes etc etc.

I really don't want to read crap about child labour, and exploitation etc etc. That always has happened, as it horrible and should be stopped and people punished, but it doesn't change the point.

Free trade does not cause poverty.

Answer 3

No, it doesn't cause poverty - not directly at least. In the long-run a country participating in free trade will achieve the standard of living of its richer trade partners, if left to the market. Free trade induces a lot of competition, which makes things more efficient, and in the long run, everyone benefits from the increases in efficiency, productivity, and gives people more goods to choose from. This is what's been happening in China and India.

A country that has been protected by tariffs and quotas for a long time, and suddenly undergoes a switch to free trade might find that its businesses can't compete with the goods from other countries, and they go bankrupt - driving employment down, wages down, and poverty up. So in the short run, it could indirectly cause poverty - this happened in some of the former communist countries. Sometimes countries prefer to regulate trade, at least temporarily to better economic outcomes (like was done in Japan). Free trade can also cause problems with instability, and can homogonize cultures. But overall, free trade will only increase overall wealth in a country.

Answer 4

Trade can cause poverty because the freedom of trade means that the first world countries can exploit people and producers in third world countries, by not paying a fair price for the gods. Some might say that the sellers could just not accept that price and demand a higher price; but sadly that just isn't the case; if they don't accept the offer they might end up with nothing.

Answer 5

Free trade will affect some avenues negatively and the others, positively. For e.g. China produces many goods more cheaply than other countries. So manufacturing industries of similar goods will incur losses. But China needs raw materials like oil palm from Malaysia and indonesia. So those industries will immensely flourish.

Answer 6

In the long run it will reduce world poverty because people in poor nations will be able to participate in the economy of developed countries and increase their incomes. However in the short run it causes changes in markets that will hurt some segments of the population in all countries. In developed nations workers in outsourced industries are hurt, but rarely driven into poverty. Prices for tradable goods fall everywhere.

Answer 7

It sometimes can. Before the Depression many areas of the economy wasn't regulated in the U.S. Child labor was exploited, factory workers were worked long hours in unsafe conditions with little pay, and large businesses had Monopolies in their field (Rockefeller in oil) After the depression, F.D.R. created beaucracies to help recover the economy as well to regulate it. Many people during the late 19th centuries and 20th centuries were in poverty. The rich were extremely rich and the poor were extremely poor. This was because coorporate bosses were allowed to run amuck. The 20's brought on a middle class, but it was short lived.

Answer 8

No.
Poor Miranda has some uber-liberal professors feeding her nonsense. Not surprising.

The Lack of Free Trade / Globalization causes poverty.
How much trading do we do with North Korea, Rwanda, Congo?
People don't take jobs that make them worse off in life. People in the third world take these jobs because they are better off than their previous job, if they had a job at all.

Here are some articles, if you want it.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/bp31_dumping.htm
http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/Subsidies-Hurt-Poor-Akande19oct02.htm
http://www.ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=32906
http://www.reason.com/news/show/36207.html
.

Answer 9

No, it enhances the ability of consumers to choose what products they will take. As new businesses come in from overseas wages rise.

Answer 10

it will significantly harm the economy of under developed countries who has futrue plans to compete in industry.
Despite of all good things told about it, but it will simply raise the number of consumers worldwide. and this is something bad in my opinion.