For Buchanan, why lock our workers into old 19th century factory jobs via protectionism?
The best examples of protectionism are in North Korea and Cuba. We have 20 million new jobs under freer Clinton/Gore trade. Pat Buchanan: The gentleman is ignorant of history. The greatest growth in American history was from 1860 to 1913 when we averaged 4% a year. We had an economy half the size of Great Britain at the start, and ended up with an economy twice the size of Great Britain’s, while the British embraced free trade and we embraced protectionism. And how can you say these are 19th century jobs, building cars, motorcycles, textiles, toys, etcetera, when Americans, on the eve of the 21st century, are consuming them in greater volumes than ever before. Ralph Nader: US trade with all foreign nations accounts for less than 12% of our GNP. All international trade between all countries, including countries in the European Union, all totaled, is less than the size of the US economy. It runs a little over 6 trillion dollars; the US economy is more than 10 trillion. That 6 trillion do
