Oxford defines fair as \uff93treating people equally,\uff94 or \uff93just or appropriate in the circumstances.\uff94 When politicians describe fair trade, the word takes on a particular meaning like \uff93not taking advantage of the small man.\uff94 <\/P><\/p>\n
This brief explanation makes it patently clear that \uff93fair\uff94 is a very subjective word and therefore, what one person understands is fair trade another does not. However, where most individualists draw the line is when politicians want to choose what is fair or not. In this respect, politicians are most adept at using the word for their purposes, which is to oblige (or force) some people to act contrary to their own purposes to serve the interests of someone else. <\/P><\/p>\n
America & Japanese Vehicle Imports.<\/P><\/p>\n
Let\uffb4s look at the automotive industry in the United States during the 1980\uffb4s. American manufacturers were accusing the Japanese of \uff93dumping\uff94 vehicles below their cost into America so the American automakers could not compete on a \uff93fair\uff94 or \uff93level playing field.\uff94<\/P><\/p>\n
Fearing that people would lose their jobs the government intervened and asked the Japanese to institute voluntary export constraints, giving the American manufacturers an opportunity to upgrade their plants so they could produce more competitive products.<\/P><\/p>\n
Well, the Japanese agreed, but the American manufacturer\uffb4s did not use this time to improve, they simply took advantage of the government\uffb4s attempt to make things \uff93fair\uff94 and did not bother to improve their product to supply what the American consumer wanted to buy. <\/P><\/p>\n
This attempt to make everything \uff93fair\uff94 led to an unprecedented decline in the U.S. automotive industry that was further exacerbated by the Japanese building manufacturing plants in America. <\/P><\/p>\n
Today, according to recent reports, Toyota Motor Corporation has surpassed Ford as the world\uffb4s second-largest automaker behind General Motors Corporation. <\/P><\/p>\n
The Bahamas and Manufacturing.<\/P><\/p>\n
Turning homeward, government supposedly \uff93levels the playing field\uff94 for local start-up manufacturing enterprises by imposing high tariffs on imports of foreign product. This is said to protect local industry, but in these conditions, the competitive market is not allowed to develop resulting in the consumer paying higher prices. In politics, this is known as \uff93fair\uff94 trade. <\/P><\/p>\n
This begs a couple questions:<\/P><\/p>\n
1. Where are these start-up companies today? And, <\/P><\/p>\n
2. Did government reduce the duty rates on the imports when they went out of business? <\/P><\/p>\n
One can rest assured that the Bahamian consumer pays more for products when the government intervenes to decide what is \uff93fair\uff94 in place of the market. <\/P><\/p>\n
So what?<\/P><\/p>\n
Should we care? After all, the government tried to save jobs and \uff93create\uff94 a local industry. Well, what about the jobs that would have been created had government not intervened, thereby allowing the entrepreneurial spirit to develop new industry. Government cannot decide what \uff93fair trade\uff94 is. Individuals trading with each other for goods and services determine for themselves what is fair or not.<\/P><\/p>\n
Bahamian consumers are smart enough to determine if someone is trying to take advantage of them, so the best protection for them is a wide choice of goods and services, either home made or imported. <\/P><\/p>\n
Is the search for fairness a mistake?<\/P><\/p>\n
Dr. Milton Friedman suggested that it\uffb4s not a mistake to search for \uff93fairness.\uff94 The issue is how we attempt to determine what \uff93fair\uff94 is. He noted: \uff93There is a real role for fairness, but that role is in constructing general rules and adjudicating disputes about the rules, not determining the outcome of our separate activities. That is the sense in which we speak of a \uff93fair\uff94 game and \uff93fair\uff94 umpire. If we applied the present doctrine of \uff93fairness\uff94 to a football game, the referee would be required after each play to move the ball backward or forward enough to make sure that the game ended in a draw!\uff94<\/P><\/p>\n
The only way the government or politicians should be trying to determine what is fair or not is by treating people equally when it comes to following the rules. This can be accomplished by spending their time ensuring the court system is efficient so people can seek redress if they think they have not been treated \uff93fairly.\uff94<\/P><\/p>\n
If they do that, the only fair they will need to organise would be for amusement and public entertainment.<\/P><\/p>\n
The Nassau Institute<\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In recent years politicians inject the word \uff93fair\uff94 into most debates. In fact, they are famous for saying that things are \uff93not fair.\uff94<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}