“Free trade” means what again?
The United States likes to spout off a lot about the benefits of free trade, but, of course, it’s all just another example of the hypocrisy that we so constantly engage in. Countries in Africa that produce cotton recently joined Brazil in a complaint to the WTO about subsidies paid to cotton farmers in the U.S. and Europe, which are apparently causing extreme hardships for cotton farmers in other countries. According to the World Bank, these subsidies have helped to drive the price of cotton down to all-time lows, which is turn is destroying the already fragile economies of areas where cotton is grown without such subsidies.
Apparently the profits of the corporations that grow cotton are more important than the lives of poor people in the Third World. Not that this comes as a surprise. Capitalism doesn’t care about anything but the efficient accumulation of capital, but it would be nice if those in power could at least admit what they’re doing, rather than pretending that they somehow want to bring benefits to everyone in the world.
