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Originally Posted by $5 submissions
I was hanging out recently at a cafe near my office and got into an interesting conversation with an investment banker vacationing from the US. He was emphatic that free trade and open markets and open competition are the best solution for third world poverty. I, for one, am very concerned with this topic since chronic poverty afflicts a large majority of the globe.
While, in theory, neo-liberal free trade prescriptions seem attractive aren't there cultural and political barriers to making it happen? Even if a country were to adopt such a system wouldn't it be defeated by corrupt self-dealing and crony capitalism and monopolist practices? What other systems need to be in place or arise simultaneously for this scheme to work? Aren't the major existing economic powerhouses creatures NOT of free markets but protected local markets?
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An element which is clearly missing in most grandiose plans currently being presented in support of "free trade" is the motivation of those presenting them.
"Free trade" was never the concept of "grab as much as I can by using cheap labor and force our overpriced products on the cheap labor force and drain more money out of them". That's not free trade - it's abuse.
It would also benefit those in poverty if your merchant banker friend could remember to pay the bills owing to those in lower economic circumstances.