The Morning Rant: Anti-Brexit “Free Traders” And Their Hostility to Economic Freedom
[Buck Throckmorton]

Pretty much all Principled Free Traders™ were united in their opposition to Great Britain’s “Brexit” from the European Union. And it has now become pretty clear that they were opposed to Brexit because they are simply hostile to liberty, be it personal freedom or national sovereignty.

The EU, a governing body over whom British voters had no recourse at the ballot box, sought to regulate the minutiae of every European’s life and activities - it even sought to outlaw the toasters and kettles found in most British kitchens. That was one of the final straws for British voters.

Why new EU rules could ban your toaster and kettle by autumn

British citizens voted to leave the EU in 2016, and Principled Free Traders™ perversely started cheering for the EU not to engage in free trade with Britain post-Brexit. Instead, they were cheering for the EU to cripple Britain with tariffs and trade barriers. You’d think that highly principled people - like they claim to be - would advocate for free trade with or without the EU regulating it. But as it turns out, the Principled Free Traders™ who opposed Brexit were not actually interested in free trade at all, they just wanted Britain to live in subjugation to the autocrats in Brussels.

George Will spoke for all freedom-hating globalists in his 2019 column,
Brexit Shows How Direct Democracy Can Be Dangerous

To the likes of George Will, free trade means unelected foreign bureaucrats should have the power to prohibit you from buying a toaster, or a gas-powered car, or whatever else they choose to ban. Because outlawing something means you are criminalizing it, Principled Free Traders™ believe you should face criminal consequences if you choose to own a tea kettle if foreign regulators determine that you shouldn’t. If that’s what free trade means, I am proud to no longer be a free trader.

Back when I considered myself a free trader, I understood the term to mean that consumers should have the right to buy whatever they want from whomever they want, and that trade would occur among countries with reciprocal trade laws, tariffs, and labor laws.

But Principled Free Traders™ advocate for an unelected, global, command-and-control bureaucracy that determines what can be manufactured, how it can be sold, what options consumers are allowed, and a vast list of products that consumers are prohibited from purchasing. They call this “free trade.” I call it tyranny.

(buck.throckmorton @ protonmail dot com)

posted by Open Blogger at 11:00 AM

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