CLOTHING LABELS CAN SAVE THE WORLD

 I purchased a shirt last week, and when I checked the label, I found that it was manufactured in Viet Nam. It made me think: What a screwy world we live in, and free trade is the ultimate solution.

Here we are in 2014 wearing clothes made in Viet Nam, and back in the sixties we were locked in a bloody wore with them. In fact, I was drafted in the first big Viet Nam era callup in January of 1966. Prior to then, the army was drafted 2 to 3 thousand guys a month. That January it shot up to 25 thousand men, and went as high as 40 thousand. Fortunately, they shipped my ass to Germany for a year and a half. The only thing I fought was hangovers from German beer. But for the next 8 years, the Viet Nam war raged on. Fifty-seven thousand good Americans were slaughtered, and a hundred thousand were seriously wounded, along with tens of thousands of Viet Namese killed in a pointless, brutal war. Now, decades later, we send them money and they make our clothes.

It is a story repeated from decades earlier, when we went to war against Japan, and hundreds of thousands of Americans and Japanese were killed.  A decade after the war, they were our trading partner, and today Japan leads the world in electronics and car manufacturing. Hard to believe that we were once deadly enemie, each bent on destroying the other. The same holds true for Germany, who is now our ally and trading partner.

Now in  2014, it would be inconceivable to wage war against Germany, Japan and Viet Nam. Therein lies the beauty of free trade., because a country has nothing to gain and everything to lose by going to war against a trading partner. Free trade is the ultimate solution to world peace. When countries are interconnected and interdependent, when their prosperity and security depends on export and inport only a damn fool would attack a good customer. A key point to remember is that prior to World War II, Japan and the US were not trading partners; nor was the US and Viet Nam. From their standpoint at the time, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain by attacking us. Today's reality is simpler: You don't kill your best customers; you nurture them.

Read the label on your next clothing or electronic purchase. Instead of bitching about jobs going overseas, be aware of one thing. It is far better to send our dollars abroad land receive desired goods in return, than sending brave young Americans abroad, and receiving bodybags in return.