with free trade will rich become richer and the poor become poorer?

Answer 1

Trade is closing the gap between rich and poor countries, but increasing the gap between rich and poor people within countries.
The growth of China and India is going to a small fraction of the population, who are doing very well but the lives of the majority is unchanged. In the US income inequality is growing and the top one percent have doubled their income share.
The rich are getting richer but most of the poor are not but I don;t think they are getting poorer either.

Answer 2

In the long long run yes--- it will create even larger class divisions I believe. Rich get richer exploiting workers for cheaper wages overseas while jobs leave already industrialized countries leaving a vaccuum/ loss of family wage earning jobs. Unions are dissolving because international companies can just pick up and move operations to any country that offers savings because unions do not control the means of production.

I see borders eroding worldwide one day in the far future with the idea of country being obsolete because of its general interference in business dealing with so many goverments and sets of rules to deal with in a globalized economy. What I think we are seeing is the end of the industrial age in the West and the transition to the Information Age. The industrial age is being transferred more and more to the 3rd world. Those that cant utilize information to earn either in a specialized profession or through information to invest capital (stocks etc) will probably get left behind creating a growing gap between rich, poor and probably an eroding middle class. As our system runs today I dont believe it will be sustainable many decades down the road without a major upheaval.

This being said sounding like some sort of an anti-capitalism, I should say that I have totally immersed myself into investing in stocks for a number of years and do pretty well but just dont think its a healthy system for the world in general, nor will it be sustainable for the long term. I could go on and on with the subject to book length probably but you get my general thoughts.

Answer 3

No, with trade, people specialize on a certain product or products and this allows for the those working together to produce more goods.

The whole rich get richer thing is just from when one person doing trade has a better resource and is able to take advantage of the other person/people, but that's not trade, that's just people.

Answer 4

Please! Look at China. There are people for the first time actually having an "existence". Trade has re-defined their world. Their quality of life has grown exponentially. This despite the fact that they work so hard for so very little. I like cheap goods, but not at the exploitation of other workers. Yet, from their perspective, things are better.