I certainly don't have the answers for how to solve the current economic situation (although much of it is clearly psychological), but I do know moving to protectionism is not one of the answers. Without going into all the reasons international trade is a great thing, suffice it to say I think the case is made that regions have specialties and trade amongst regions in which they share what each does best is a very good thing.
An article in today's USA Today reports on US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson's comments recently about protectionism and how it will make current problems worse. I completely agree. Here's the link:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-10-12-financial-crisis-washington_N.htm#open-share-help
In this election season one also hears much about "US jobs going overseas". This is another example of fear mongering by politicians. Our local US representative is one of the worst in this regard. In a recent TV add he actually made this quote, "I think it's time we started shipping our values overseas, not our jobs".
First of all, I don't hear many countries asking for our values to be shipped overseas. I believe the values embodied in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence are the basis for our success as a country. However, there is no reason to believe they are right for all other countries. The world is a big place and people are different in many ways around the world.
The protectionist statements of this uninformed representative are not helping the situation at all. Blaming an overseas bogey man for some of our problems takes away from the sense of personal responsibility and self-efficacy needed to fix them.
Protectionism - NO. Innovative problem solving and personal responsibility - YES
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