American Isolation is a Good Thing

"My opponent quotes me on Haiti and Cuba, but only responds to my statements on Haiti, so we can assume he concedes my points about how Cuba would be better off today if they were with us." I did actually "According to the Human Development Index, Haiti is 161st out of 187 while Cuba is actually ranking high on the HDI tied for 59th" (http://en.wikipedia.org...) According to Newsweek Magazine, it has one of the "best qualities of life" in the world. People think that the Cuba is a horrible place to live when it really is actually doing quite well for itself. Glen Roberts, a independent reporter (http://www.iammyownreporter.com...) who reports on Latin America went around Cuba and learned that a petition was signed, in 2002, to put socialism into the Cuban constitution. If they really hated their government so much, why would they sign a petition to KEEP the government that Castro started? It really makes no sense and is just propaganda that politicians like to run because they cannot admit they were totally wrong. "To the second contention, my opponent first makes the statement that we're racking up money that Haiti owes us. I read the entire article that he sourced this statement from, and could not find a single instance of that being stated." Haiti has been in debt ever since it won its independence in 1804. They appeared to have finally paid them off in 1947, but then were ruled by the Duvaliers from 1957 to 1986 that "were estimated to account for approximately 40% of Haiti's debt in 2000" (http://en.wikipedia.org...). Elizabeth Abbott (http://en.wikipedia.org...) wrote two new chapters in her book Haiti: The Duvaliers and their Legacy after the Earthquake and even renamed the book Haiti: A Shattered Nation. In the book she claims that the Haitian economy is one based on poverty. Haiti had a $1.8 billion at one point , which is ridiculous for a nation that only produces only 7.9 GDP (http://www.imf.org...=) per year and we began to waive our debts until we financed the disastrous earthquake relief that led to their debt yet again surpassing $1 billion. "First, what farmers? Most farms in Haiti are getting wrecked by natural disaster after natural disaster[1]. So if we stopped donating rice to help the farmers, the now farm-less farmers wouldn't be able to help out their fellow countrymen." Agricultural production accounted for nearly half of gross domestic product in the 1970s. It now amounts to less than a third(http://www.nbcnews.com...). According to Jean Andre Victor, a Haitian agronomist, "There's a long history in Haiti of groups like USAID flooding the market with rice and other imports," said Victor. "This is not what we need. We need real help and that means completely changing the agricultural system." Renan Reynold, a 37-year-old farmer who makes an average of about $600 a year summed it up perfectly. "If I can't make any money, I can't feed my family." He cannot pay for all the irrigation and other tools to protect his land from the harmful storms, and the looters are the ones left with all the food and all the power. So, yes I would say Cuba is much better off than Haiti. "But back to my overall point, it is a lesser evil to allow these corporations to do this. " You do not have any evidence to support this. I have consistently shown you examples, like Nepal and Indonesia, where every human right imaginable is ignored by these multi-national organizations. America doesn't need and doesn't want them. "Obama says we're not putting boots on the ground" We put 275 solders on the ground three days after that article was published, like I said in my last post (http://www.usatoday.com...). In case you haven't learned yet politicians lie. "Yes, but why is it that we produced more?" We produce more because our workers our workers make more per hour worked 67.32 GDP PPP(http://en.wikipedia.org...(PPP)_per_hour_worked). "much of that GDP comes from products manufactured from imports, or comes from Americans outright selling imports." "it is still less than half of what we are running on now." Not sourced "The epic crash America would experience could very well be irreparable." You do not have any evidence to back such a huge claim. Americas industry was built in the early 1800s by AMERICANS. Nobody came over and helped us do it, we created a independent economy by ourselves and that was when our country was growing the most. We built the textile industries, the railroads and everything else that made the US into a global power by the 1900s (http://en.wikipedia.org...). We did not crash then and we will not crash now. "The first is what my opponent has been talking about all along, which is big corporations giving dirt pay jobs in other countries. So even if there is a middle man, he can sell his product for cheap because that's how his employees are paid." You are paying extra for middle man. It does not matter how bad you treat your employees which makes what you are buying inefficient. If we invest more in domestic product, we could take advantage of economies of scale from a larger local industry and they can start paying less for their products too. "Second, as Mark Perry (again, an economic professor, can't stress that enough) says, the goods we import from other countries are very cheap." Ok that is the opinion of one professor, they are like everyone else, they differ in opinions. But, just like you, he has no facts to back up his monumental statement. So what if Caterpillar and Microsoft go out of business, all businesses eventually do. There will be new ones to replace them. "Third, according to laws of economics, cheaper imports is one of the major reasons for importing" Your source (2) leads to the article on Obama. But just reading your statement, it does not give any reason for why America has to rely on a worse workforce when its domestic workforce is the biggest powerhouse on the face of the Earth. "This is not sourced, and it doesn't make sense." I sourced it earlier, we produce more because our workers our workers make more per hour worked 67.32 GDP PPP(http://en.wikipedia.org...(PPP)_per_hour_worked). Here is a really simple example, say I pay a American and a Russian to make me lemonades for an hour. I decide to pay the Russian $4 and the American $8. If they produce like the average Russian, 19.7 GDP PPP per hour, and American, 67.32, the American still makes more money for me (even though i paid the Russian less 19-4 is 15 and 67-8 is 59), and it would get more lucrative the longer they work because the Russian would produce 98.5 lemonades, example version of GDP PPP while the American would make 336.6 lemonades. "getting more and more expensive" Inflation "This claim is not properly sourced." http://www.webometrics.info... http://www.theguardian.com... http://www.universityworldnews.com... Here are a few people that agree I think that the final round, we should summarize what we said because I showed this to a friend and we have covered a lot of ground. Would you be fine with that?