Hi Bob-

To refresh your memory, we corresponded a couple of years (?) ago on the subject of free trade.  I don't know that we came to any consensus on any aspect of it.

I had a rare lucid interval that I would like to share.  This is something so clear and yet so hidden from public debate.

In our factory, more and more parts and tools are coming in from overseas. The domestic factories that make these parts and tools are fewer and fewer.  The people that know how to make them are getting older and since there is less domestic demand, younger people are not entering the industry and learning about how to make them.

My observation is this.  If, as a nation, we now know that dependence on foreign oil is BAD, why is dependence on foreign everything else OKAY?

Dependence on foreign oil is bad because we cannot trust our suppliers to supply us through thick and thin since we do not share other-than economic goals with them.  They are not our neighbors, our families or our friends.  They are simply trading partners.  They may trade with us today and maybe not tomorrow.

I propose that trade policy be dictated by this fundamental observation:   Free trade is okay as long as we as a nation are still ABLE to supply our own needs. 

Because of this observation, I now believe that unfettered free trade will result in more and more military confrontations a la Iraq.  Since we are DEPENDENT, and since our trading partners have divergent political and cultural values, the only way to control our destiny is through armed conflict.

Please.

Regards,
Claude Simon
Brandeis '78

Claude Simon
Vrtx, Inc.
1101 Mount Vernon Road
Soperton, GA  30457
Phone: 1 912 529 4800
Fax: 1 912 529 4746
email:claudesimon@planttel.net