But I'll ask this question; Should the United States with a robust (but declining) middle class and myriad environmental protections, etc, allow countries that pay next to nothing for wages and care nothing for environmental consequences import to our country and compete with our businesses? Talk about your unfair advantage!
So many people complain about what is happening to the earth, why not extend our values to rest of the world, by saying that any importers must abide by our standards in order to sell to us? Would that help the environment? Standards of living elsewhere? Protect some American jobs? Seems to me it would.
Great post. I think it could be done and could be spun as action against climate change, holding the rest of the world accountable for their lack of environmental controls, with the side benefit of protecting the supply chains of local citizens. If it worked, then it could potentially level the playing field in terms of cost but also have a positive effect n the environment.
However, the pessimist in me thinks that it wouldn't work, as people will still want to buy cheap stuff, and companies will still want to maintain their profit margins... there would be push-back that would probably win out.
