Today marks the start of "Fairtrade Fortnight" and I can't help but to share some of my thought on so called "Fair trade".
In Britain the plague of "Fair trade" is wide-spread, much more so than in Sweden, from what I can tell. It is unfortunate that the use of the word "fair" fools droves of people into believing that there is something good about "Fair trade". The Adam Smith Institute’s Blog has a very enlightening entry today about the evils of “Fair trade”, namely that it raises costs for consumers, and enslaves the people it claims to help.
However, the sly marketers of “Fair trade” have left us, who are trying to expose it as the hoax it is, in a difficult position, since it is tricky to take the opposite position in an argument against someone who is promoting “Fair trade”. If I say that I am against “Fair trade” does that mean that I want “Unfair trade”? That would of course be the logical counter-stance to “Fair trade”, but is that really what I believe in? No, of course not, I want what has helped build prosperity in the West for hundreds of years, I want specialisation and free trade.
There is no plainer way of saying it, free trade is fair trade. Nothing more, nothing less.
In Britain the plague of "Fair trade" is wide-spread, much more so than in Sweden, from what I can tell. It is unfortunate that the use of the word "fair" fools droves of people into believing that there is something good about "Fair trade". The Adam Smith Institute’s Blog has a very enlightening entry today about the evils of “Fair trade”, namely that it raises costs for consumers, and enslaves the people it claims to help.
However, the sly marketers of “Fair trade” have left us, who are trying to expose it as the hoax it is, in a difficult position, since it is tricky to take the opposite position in an argument against someone who is promoting “Fair trade”. If I say that I am against “Fair trade” does that mean that I want “Unfair trade”? That would of course be the logical counter-stance to “Fair trade”, but is that really what I believe in? No, of course not, I want what has helped build prosperity in the West for hundreds of years, I want specialisation and free trade.
There is no plainer way of saying it, free trade is fair trade. Nothing more, nothing less.
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