General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Free traders, and I mean all of them, worldwide, do you understand what's wrong here? [View all]Zalatix
(8,994 posts)Tariffs are not the be all and end all of things. It's just the beginning.
A more effective but exponentially more difficult solution is to reform the World Trade Organization. As in, totally rethink it.
In a just world, entry into the WTO would be predicated upon a government guaranteeing its workers a safe work environment, livable wages, a consistent push toward a modern lifestyle, environmental protections, and a host of other things that we here in the West enjoy.
Certain technological inventions that improve the lives of people should be shared with all countries, and members of the WTO would contribute money to compensate the inventors. Like those Scottish fellows that just said they found a way to make fuel that scrubs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? The WTO should have the power to get that mass-deployed now, and give the inventors some big cash payout that'll be big enough to serve as encouragement for others.
The WTO as it is wouldn't even have any mechanism to contemplate such a move. Hence, why it should be totally reconstructed. The Plutocracy would love to send a drone to kill anyone just for coming up with this idea; but in lieu of that they'll be happy to poison people's minds with propaganda about how it could never work and
OH WAIT THERE'S HONEY BOO BOO GOTTA GO BYE!!!!!!!!!!! <--- and that's how the proletariat gets distracted.