LP blog: Poll says majority of Americans aligned with Libertarian Party on foreign policy

Staff at LP.org:

A poll released by the Pew Research Center indicates that a majority of Americans are aligned with the Libertarian Party’s goals of less U.S. military intervention and more free trade.

The poll concludes that Americans’ support for U.S. global engagement has fallen to a historic low while “support for closer trade and business ties with other nations stands at its highest point in more than a decade.”

For the first time in nearly 40 years since the survey was first conducted, a majority (52 percent) say that the United States should “mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.”

Add foreign policy to the growing list of broad issues with which the American public is aligned with the Libertarian Party, which includes:

lower government spending
lower taxes
a balanced budget
an end to mass surveillance of citizens
an end to the failed prohibition of marijuana
marriage equality

And now:

a non-interventionist, free-trade foreign policy

Starchild December 9, 2013

Yes. Although I don’t think the Greens are particularly in favor of international free trade. Which is too bad, because from both an environmentalist perspective and a social justice/equality perspective, they should be.

Free trade helps the environment because the long-term environmental health of the planet is threatened by expanding human population. Poor people tend to have more children, thus increasing prosperity is key to stabilizing the human population, and free trade contributes to growing global prosperity. Free trade also hastens the development and spread of new technological innovations in areas such as cleaner energy, more efficient recycling, and more effective birth control.

Free trade has a positive impact in terms of social justice and equality as well. It reduces the artificial wealth gaps between nations that result from the more developed nations acting like wealthy, gated communities trying to keep the world’s poor stuck in their misruled ghettos. To the extent that international free trade is able to surmount the formidable barriers erected by governments, manufacturing and jobs naturally flow to the low-wage regions that have the best economic conditions from the point of view of businesses, until competition for labor causes wages in those places rise to levels that begin to make the overall conditions for employers there less favorable relative to conditions elsewhere, at which point manufacturing and jobs start to migrate again to where labor is less costly, and the cycle repeats, gradually working to equalize world incomes and allowing people in the poorest parts of the world to escape crushing poverty.

This has been a major factor in what is probably one of the three most important and positive stories of the past quarter century, namely the ascent of hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty in places like China, India, and Brazil (the other two top stories in my opinion were the collapse of the Soviet empire and international communism, and the rise of the Internet).

Steve Chapman had a very good article about this underreported good news in Reason magazine last year. An excerpt:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the surface, the first decade of the 21st century looks like an ugly parade of terrorism, war and economic convulsion. But in one important sense it stands as possibly the greatest decade in human history. And that’s no accident.

Among the most vicious enemies of human welfare is poverty. In a world plagued with limited resources, bad governments and unsound economic policies, it often appears to be an inescapable scourge. Most people paid no attention in 2000 when the United Nations proclaimed the goal of halving the number of earth’s inhabitants living in extreme poverty by 2015, compared to 1990.

But way ahead of schedule, the target has already been hit. For the first time since it began tracking, says a new World Bank report, “the data indicate a decline in both the poverty rate and the number of poor in all six regions of the developing world.”

In 1981, 70 percent of those in the developing world subsisted on the equivalent of less than $2 a day, and 42 percent had to manage with less than $1 a day. Today, 43 percent are below $2 a day and 14 percent below $1.

“Poverty reduction of this magnitude is unparalleled in history: Never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief period of time,” write Brookings Institution researchers Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz.

Just as important as the extent of the improvement is the location: everywhere. In the past there has been improvement in a few countries or a continent. Not this time.

China has continued the rapid upward climb it began three decades ago. India, long a laggard, has shaken off its torpor. Latin America has made sharp inroads against poverty. “For the first time since 1981,” says the World Bank, “we have seen less than half the population of sub-Saharan Africa living below $1.25 a day.”

The start of most global trends is hard to pinpoint. This one, however, had its big bang in the early 1970s, in Chile. After a socialist government brought on economic chaos, the military seized power in a bloody coup and soon embarked on a program of drastic reform — privatizing state enterprises, fighting inflation, opening up foreign trade and investment and unshackling markets.

It was the formula offered by economists associated with the University of Chicago, notably Milton Friedman, and it turned Chile into a rare Latin American success. In time, it also facilitated a return to democracy. Chile was proof that freeing markets and curbing state control could generate broad-based prosperity, which socialist policies could only promise.

If that experiment weren’t sufficient, it got another try on a much bigger scale when China’s Deng Xiaoping abandoned the disastrous policies of Mao Zedong and veered onto the capitalist road. The result was an economic miracle yielding growth rates that averaged 10 percent per year.

The formula was too effective to be ignored. Over the past two decades, poorer nations have dismantled command-and-control methods and given markets greater latitude. Economic growth, not redistribution, has been the surest cure for poverty, and economic freedom has been the key that unlocked the riddle of economic growth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The entire article can be found at http://reason.com/archives/2012/03/29/toward-the-conquest-of-world-poverty .

4 Comments

paulie December 9, 2013
It also helps prevent wars. When goods don’t cross borders armies will. And war, as well as the preparation for war, is horrible for the environment.
Since environmental protection is a “luxury good” – something people are more concerned with when they don’t have to worry about starvation, epidemics, and death from exposure as much – it’s much better for the environment if we allow unencumbered trade to increase prosperity globally.
Starchild December 9, 2013
Yes. Although I don’t think the Greens are particularly in favor of international free trade. Which is too bad, because from both an environmentalist perspective and a social justice/equality perspective, they should be.
Free trade helps the environment because the long-term environmental health of the planet is threatened by expanding human population. Poor people tend to have more children, thus increasing prosperity is key to stabilizing the human population, and free trade contributes to growing global prosperity. Free trade also hastens the development and spread of new technological innovations in areas such as cleaner energy, more efficient recycling, and more effective birth control.
Free trade has a positive impact in terms of social justice and equality as well. It reduces the artificial wealth gaps between nations that result from the more developed nations acting like wealthy, gated communities trying to keep the world’s poor stuck in their misruled ghettos. To the extent that international free trade is able to surmount the formidable barriers erected by governments, manufacturing and jobs naturally flow to the low-wage regions that have the best economic conditions from the point of view of businesses, until competition for labor causes wages in those places rise to levels that begin to make the overall conditions for employers there less favorable relative to conditions elsewhere, at which point manufacturing and jobs start to migrate again to where labor is less costly, and the cycle repeats, gradually working to equalize world incomes and allowing people in the poorest parts of the world to escape crushing poverty.
This has been a major factor in what is probably one of the three most important and positive stories of the past quarter century, namely the ascent of hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty in places like China, India, and Brazil (the other two top stories in my opinion were the collapse of the Soviet empire and international communism, and the rise of the Internet).
Steve Chapman had a very good article about this underreported good news in Reason magazine last year. An excerpt:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the surface, the first decade of the 21st century looks like an ugly parade of terrorism, war and economic convulsion. But in one important sense it stands as possibly the greatest decade in human history. And that’s no accident.
Among the most vicious enemies of human welfare is poverty. In a world plagued with limited resources, bad governments and unsound economic policies, it often appears to be an inescapable scourge. Most people paid no attention in 2000 when the United Nations proclaimed the goal of halving the number of earth’s inhabitants living in extreme poverty by 2015, compared to 1990.
But way ahead of schedule, the target has already been hit. For the first time since it began tracking, says a new World Bank report, “the data indicate a decline in both the poverty rate and the number of poor in all six regions of the developing world.”
In 1981, 70 percent of those in the developing world subsisted on the equivalent of less than $2 a day, and 42 percent had to manage with less than $1 a day. Today, 43 percent are below $2 a day and 14 percent below $1.
“Poverty reduction of this magnitude is unparalleled in history: Never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief period of time,” write Brookings Institution researchers Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz.
Just as important as the extent of the improvement is the location: everywhere. In the past there has been improvement in a few countries or a continent. Not this time.
China has continued the rapid upward climb it began three decades ago. India, long a laggard, has shaken off its torpor. Latin America has made sharp inroads against poverty. “For the first time since 1981,” says the World Bank, “we have seen less than half the population of sub-Saharan Africa living below $1.25 a day.”
The start of most global trends is hard to pinpoint. This one, however, had its big bang in the early 1970s, in Chile. After a socialist government brought on economic chaos, the military seized power in a bloody coup and soon embarked on a program of drastic reform — privatizing state enterprises, fighting inflation, opening up foreign trade and investment and unshackling markets.
It was the formula offered by economists associated with the University of Chicago, notably Milton Friedman, and it turned Chile into a rare Latin American success. In time, it also facilitated a return to democracy. Chile was proof that freeing markets and curbing state control could generate broad-based prosperity, which socialist policies could only promise.
If that experiment weren’t sufficient, it got another try on a much bigger scale when China’s Deng Xiaoping abandoned the disastrous policies of Mao Zedong and veered onto the capitalist road. The result was an economic miracle yielding growth rates that averaged 10 percent per year.
The formula was too effective to be ignored. Over the past two decades, poorer nations have dismantled command-and-control methods and given markets greater latitude. Economic growth, not redistribution, has been the surest cure for poverty, and economic freedom has been the key that unlocked the riddle of economic growth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The entire article can be found at http://reason.com/archives/2012/03/29/toward-the-conquest-of-world-poverty .
Jed Ziggler December 8, 2013
Indeed, this is an area where Libertarians & Greens are in agreement.
Green Party Voter December 8, 2013
The headline to just a well read “Americans aligned with Green Party on foreign policy”.. Greens have long urged to bring troops and tax dollars home now.

Comments are closed.