Free Trade

I'll begin by defending against my opponent's attack: I'm not sure where my opponent got the idea that EndSlaveryNow is biased against free trade. It doesn't even have any positions on free trade and is only pointing out and trying to end slavery and child labor in the world. It doesn't have anything to say about free trade, which the voters will see if they go to the source [1] So it seems like this attack is unfounded, unless they can show that they have a bias against free trade somewhere else on the site, which I have yet to find any. As for my opponent's attack on my claim that free trade hurts jobs in America and offered a rebuttal that the US chamber of commerce shows that free trade creates jobs, they didn't link to any source for this claim, so it can't be verified. I did try looking for it through a google search, with "US chamber of commerce, jobs and free trade" but I can't find a specific source that confirms the 5 million number my opponent suggests. In addition, since it's a lobbying group not owned by the government, it would be more biased than the scientific study that I linked to, and probably can't be trusted either way. The source I linked to for the jobs lost is the researchgate source, source number 8 above. You'll need to press on "download" to view it once you've clicked on the link. As for my opponents first and second contentions, I've already conceded that free trade does leave to cheaper products, but at what cost? The reason they are cheaper is actually because those countries pay their workers hardly anything. As we can see here, workers in Mexico are paid significantly lower than in the United States, about 4 times as low.[2] In addition, I already pointed out how other countries use slave and child labor, this also reduces the cost of making the product, but is either really moral to do just for a cheaper product? Yes, products are cheaper with free trade, but we're buying them at the expense of other people in those countries: where they get paid hardly anything to survive off of, or they are not paid anything at all because they are slaves. I think a little bit of inflation is worth it in order to make sure morals are promoted and that workers are properly compensated for their work in other countries. Sure it may help our economy, but we are profiting with a better economy through buying products that were created by people who were paid measly wages or no wage at all. Saying it's a good thing to improve the economy off of those circumstances is like saying it's okay to steal from someone else because it helps you out. As for my opponents third contention, I again ask, at what cost are we getting more innovative and efficient? Again, it's happening because we are piggybacking off of slavery, child labor, and poorly-compensated workers of other nations. As for the idea that it raises wages, I would need to see your source, because there can be many other reasons for wages rising, such as minimum wage going up in various states. This source need to prove causation, and it can't just prove correlation, otherwise the wages easily could have been going up for other reasons. And once more, if it's true, it's happening because of what I said before: we're piggybacking off of slavery, child labor, and poorly-compensated workers of other nations. Sources: [1] http://www.endslaverynow.org... [2] http://stats.oecd.org...