Criticisms of Free Trade
In the real world, trade agreements are negotiated by independent nations with their own interests and values in mind. There are values and interests other than maximum global output. Some level of protectionism is used by almost every nation that has the power to use it in the form of subsidies or tariffs to protect industries that nation considers essential, such as food and steel production.
Economic arguments against free trade criticize the assumptions or conclusions of economic theories. Sociopolitical arguments against free trade cite social and political effects that economic arguments do not capture, such as political stability, national security, human rights and environmental protection.
Read more about this topic: Free Trade Debate
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—William James (1842–1910)
“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.”
—William James (1842–1910)
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“Is there something in trade that dessicates and flattens out, that turns men into dried leaves at the age of forty? Certainly there is. It is not due to trade but to intensity of self- seeking, combined with narrowness of occupation.... Business has destroyed the very knowledge in us of all other natural forces except business.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)