If you’re an absolutist, then you will find life is quite hard, anywhere in the world.
I mean if you’re on board with absolute free market, then you’re also in for slavery then. I mean free market, right? Why should the sale of humans be prohibited? You see why an absolutist idea makes no sense?
Certainly slavery is a loathsome practice, and is properly banned from society, but that is most certainly not a violation of free markets. "Free" market is not equivalent with "do whatever the hell I feel like" market. A free market is an environment in which rights violating actions (i.e. actions which implement an initiation of physical force) are abolished from human affairs by the government. Slavery is an abomination, and a clear violation of rights. Therefore, it is most certainly not a feature of a free market.
Any appeal to "non-absolutism" is a reflection of mixed, or cloudy concepts, which, in this case, is a misunderstanding of what "free" means.
China is not playing well because they are cheating left and right. They impose tariffs on many US exports, while circumvent US regulations by shipping their stuff from countries like Vietnam. Politics is an art trying to balance things out.
Politics has become an art of "balancing things out," but that's only because no-one really fully knows what to do (no absolutes), and therefore they try to strike a balance between what they perceive as the two (also non-absolute) endpoints on some random spectrum. Politics is properly the realm of absolutes, as is everything else in reality, but we'll only get there once people learn how to think clearly and in terms of principle.
China may be engaging in rights violating actions against its citizens by having unfair trade policies, but that does not mean out president has the right to violate our rights in retaliation. If they impose tariffs on US exports, that hurts both us and them, and the solution is not to make sure we also shoot ourselves in the feet to make sure we both get an even amount of trigger pulling.
Besides, regardless of any regulations China may or may not have on their markets, if I identify a value in purchasing a product from there, no-one else has the right to tell me I'm not allowed to buy it, or force me to pay a premium, just because they don't like the way that country is doing things. They have every right to complain about it, but they have no right to force my or anyone else's judgement.
There’s no absolute in this world. Good luck with your absolutist point of view.
There's absolutely no absolute in this world?
Every country functions like this. Personal connections mean everything.
That doesn't make it right, and that doesn't make it a free market.
The idea of tariffs is to help US manufacturers; not to hurt them.
The government has no business "helping" or "hurting" anyone in the marketplace. Like the policy or not, that is not a feature of a free market, or a Capitalist.
What it all means is that Trump is a person you can reason with unlike the way he is presented by the left-wing media like CNN, MSNBC, etc. We've just seen the meltdown that occurred with the CNN's top anchor Chris Cuomo. Had this happened with Trump, the media would be calling for an immediate impeachment hearing. However, when this happens to the top CNN talent, they simply dismiss it as something that is totally normal and stand behind their guy. This is an egregious demonstration of a double standard in the media. So, take all the criticism of the Trump administration that is coming out of the left-wing media with a grain of salt. Their coverage of the negative effects of the Trump administration policies, including the tariffs, are grossly exaggerated, and all the achievements of the Trump administration are constantly downplayed.
I don't watch the news -- I have no interest in $h!t flinging contests. My views are not rooted in what's on the news, or anyone else's opinion, but instead in facts. The fact is the President has no business going around, deciding which people we are or are not allowed to trade with. This is a free country, not a mechanism for him to enshrine his every whim into political action. These actions are not characteristic of a free market, and the fact that he pretends to be a free market capitalist while imposing controls wherever he feels like is a mockery of facts and reality.
To be clear...your faux angst is because you want the President to continue to pretend this giant economic disaster doesn't exist, and just let the corporate norm of taking advantage of slave labor while negatively impacting their own country continue.
My "faux angst" over violations of the principle of individual rights, the principle which made this country great, and the association of those rights violating actions with free market capitalism is absolutely real, just, and warranted. The casual attitude of large swaths of the Republican party towards principles, and individual rights in particular, and their association of whimsical authoritarian actions with concepts like "freedom" and "justice" are disturbing, especially since they're willing to compromise the principles which lay at the foundation of freedom, for the sake of issues which are so pathetically meaningless.
Everyone knows this needs to be dealt with, and everyone knows dealing with it is going to be painful and come at a price. Everyone also knows that the tariffs suck, but there is no other way to make anyone do anything about it other than hitting them where it hurts.
We're hitting ourselves where it hurts; we're the ones paying the tariffs. That's the whole reason why he's delaying them in this case. It's not like he's trying to save China's Christmas.
Besides, things that "everyone knows" are usually wrong, and that's certainly no different here.
I can't imagine anything more cowardly and boring than attacking the president over this long overdue necessity.
I can imagine plenty of things which are far more cowardly than standing on principle, regardless of what your leader tells you.
Any other action, for example, would be far more fitting for a coward.