Jason William Keith's Blog

John McCain is currently airing an ad supporting the Columbian Free Trade Agreement. He is correct that free trade enriches Americans and that it will help create more jobs both in America and abroad. He also points out that more and better jobs abroad also helps deter both legal and illegal immigration. The question is why is he making such an unpopular stand right now? Perhaps this is just the most recent destination on the straight talk express.

It should be noted that I am an advocate supporter of free trade (yes even with “communist” China.) I also am a strong advocate of public and private programs to help workers who lose their jobs (by outsourcing or other means) reenter the workplace.

In the peak of the summer blockbuster season, I caught Resolved by channel flipping this afternoon. It focuses two high school debate teams from distinctly different social and economical backgrounds : California’s Long Beach High School and Texas’s Highland Park High School. One of the most interesting things I learned is that these debates are nearly impossible for the average person to comprehend because of a widely used tactic known as “spreading” or speed-reading. Because the debates are subject to a time-limit – participants speed read their arguments at a mind boggling pace. This tactic and format is subject to criticism because the incomprehensible arguments are not at all like the tactics used in actual forums such as congress, court, or even on your favorite news program.

As a sophomore in college, I took a microeconomics class taught by Dr Joseph Horton. The first day’s lecture consisted of the usual happenings such as going over the syllabus and both instructor and student introductions. While introducing myself, I mentioned my aspiration for politics and a possible political career. Dr Horton replied that politics was an honorable career, but that sound economics often disagrees with sound politics. As the semester continued, I began to understand why politics and economics sometimes mesh like water and oil.

Here is a list of unpopular ideas that most economists agree on via an archived blog by one of my favorite economist Dr Greg Mankiw. It should be noted that I strongly support every item on this list and I plan on explaining my stance in future posts.

• 87.5 percent agree that “the U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade.”
• 85.2 percent agree that “the U.S. should eliminate agricultural subsidies.”
• 85.3 percent agree that “the gap between Social Security funds and expenditures will become unsustainably large within the next fifty years if current policies remain unchanged.”
• 77.2 percent agree that “the best way to deal with Social Security’s long-term funding gap is to increase the normal retirement age.”
• 67.1 percent agree that “parents should be given educational vouchers which can be used at government-run or privately-run schools.”
• 65.0 percent agree that “the U.S. should increase energy taxes.”
• 90.1 percent disagree with the position that “the U.S. should restrict employers from outsourcing work to foreign countries
• 46.8 percent want the federal minimum wage eliminated.

One of my colleagues recently informed me that he was certain that I was a liberal-democrat. I found this idea very surprising and assured him that was not the case. But in hindsight, most of my friends and peers have come to this same conclusion over the past several years. My response to them was “You guys are just so far to the right that anybody to your left seems liberal.” I am not certain why people come to such a conclusion, but if I were to venture it a guess it would be my vocal disapproval of conservative attempts to enforce their values on the general public through legislation even when I share those same values. Nonetheless, I took the World’s Smallest Political Quiz today. It confirmed my position as a libertarian.