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Free Market and Open Borders

Moot

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Former WSJ editor Robert J Bartley was the first to introduce the idea of "supply side economics" to the public in the mid-1970s. He won a Pulitzer prize and a President medal of freedom" award for it, too. President Reagan adopted the idea during his presidency and his predecessor, GHWBush called it "Voodoo" economics and GWBush gave him the medal of freedom award in 2003. Few can deny that the WSJ has played a key roll in conceiving and promoting the free market for the last 45 years....

"...Robert Leroy Bartley (October 12, 1937 - December 10, 2003) was the editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal for more than 30 years. He won a Pulitzer Prize for opinion writing and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Bush administration in 2003. Bartley was famed for providing a conservative interpretation of the news every day, especially regarding economic issues...

A supporter of NAFTA, Bartley is said to have observed to a former colleague, Peter Brimelow, "I think the nation-state is finished." Alongside his support for the free flow of goods, Bartley supported the free flow of labour across borders. He controversially wrote in favor of open borders and high rates of immigration to the United States. After then Mexican President, Vicente Fox, declared in a speech in 2001 that "NAFTA should evolve into something like the European Union, with open borders for not only goods and investment but also people", Bartley wrote in support of having open borders between Mexico and the United States.[7] Indeed, in that July 2, 2001 Wall Street Journal editorial, Bartley reminded readers that "during the immigration debate of 1984 we suggested an ultimate goal to guide passing policies--a constitutional amendment: 'There shall be open borders.'"[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Bartley


The Journal editorial page's real influence lies in its ability to set the agenda for conservative intellectuals and Republican politicians. "From 1978 on," says Burton Pines, the former head of the American Enterprise Institute, "the single most important intellectual influence in America's conservative community has been the Wall Street Journal editorial page." Edwin Feulner, the president of the Heritage Foundation, another right-wing Washington think tank, calls the Journal "the real standard bearer for what is conservative orthodoxy."

The most famous example of the Journal's leadership is, of course, supply-side economics. In the mid-1970s, the Journal discovered, popularized and named the theory. Originally developed by University of Chicago economist Arthur Laffer and later embellished by Journal editorial writer Jude Wanniski, supply-side cut against the grain of traditional economics. Its basic tenet was simple: Cut taxes on the wealthy and their investments would stimulate the economy. The Treasury would not sustain a loss because the subsequent economic growth would generate more tax revenue, not less.

Throughout the latter years of the decade the Journal zealously promoted supply-side. In 1980, presidential candidate George Bush called it "voodoo economics," but his soon-to-be boss Ronald Reagan recognized the popular appeal of a no-pain, only-gain solution to the federal deficits that had grown during the Carter years. After Reagan was elected he embraced supply-side economics as administration policy. The Wall Street Journal had pulled off a palace coup. " The creation and implementation of the supply-side economic theory is unprecedented in journalism editorial history," says Eric Alterman, the author of "Sound & Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics." "To ask what else the Journal has done is like asking what else Einstein did besides the theory of relativity."

American Journalism Review


Since the WSJ practically wrote the book on the free market and it's become a big part of the GOP platform and lexicon, is it hypocritical for the GOP and it's new nominee to still claim to be for a free market but against open borders and immigration?
 
Former WSJ editor Robert J Bartley was the first to introduce the idea of "supply side economics" to the public in the mid-1970s [cut] is it hypocritical for the GOP and it's new nominee to still claim to be for a free market but against open borders and immigration?

He surely was the first - if you ignore the majority of economists in human history, starting at least from the 14th century (Ibn Khaldun).
You are confusing a whole bunch of things here, starting with the "supply side economics" - capital drives growth, rather than consumption, to put it crudely. The idea is not really attached to either free market or statist policies: Adam Smith and Karl Marx were both supply-siders.

But you are right in the sense that the classical liberal moral philosophy demands a pro-immigration stance. Practicalities aside, the state should present a very, very, very good reason for doing something inherently immoral - for using force to prevent voluntary, mutually beneficial interactions between people, whether it involves movement of goods, or capital, or "labor" (i.e. people themselves). The immigrant-bashers demonstrably fail to present any - outside of the ignorant, xenophobic sentiment of this or that voting group.

Notice that consistent statists - be it the Soviet Commies or Donald Trump - are against all three. Yes, I know, this is probably the only case when the word "consistent" applies to Trump.

But that's the thing: Trump is not pro-free-market in any sense. Least of all, ethically. He couldn't care less about individual freedom of choice. The only difference between him and Bernie Sanders is that the Red Populist wants to impose archaic socialist solutions that stopped evolving circa 1965, while the Orange One prefers to rely on his semi-god's intuition, instead of any ideological dogma. Too bad his intuition is invariably authoritarian
 
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Former WSJ editor Robert J Bartley was the first to introduce the idea of "supply side economics" to the public in the mid-1970s. He won a Pulitzer prize and a President medal of freedom" award for it, too. President Reagan adopted the idea during his presidency and his predecessor, GHWBush called it "Voodoo" economics and GWBush gave him the medal of freedom award in 2003. Few can deny that the WSJ has played a key roll in conceiving and promoting the free market for the last 45 years....

"...Robert Leroy Bartley (October 12, 1937 - December 10, 2003) was the editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal for more than 30 years. He won a Pulitzer Prize for opinion writing and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Bush administration in 2003. Bartley was famed for providing a conservative interpretation of the news every day, especially regarding economic issues...

A supporter of NAFTA, Bartley is said to have observed to a former colleague, Peter Brimelow, "I think the nation-state is finished." Alongside his support for the free flow of goods, Bartley supported the free flow of labour across borders. He controversially wrote in favor of open borders and high rates of immigration to the United States. After then Mexican President, Vicente Fox, declared in a speech in 2001 that "NAFTA should evolve into something like the European Union, with open borders for not only goods and investment but also people", Bartley wrote in support of having open borders between Mexico and the United States.[7] Indeed, in that July 2, 2001 Wall Street Journal editorial, Bartley reminded readers that "during the immigration debate of 1984 we suggested an ultimate goal to guide passing policies--a constitutional amendment: 'There shall be open borders.'"[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Bartley


The Journal editorial page's real influence lies in its ability to set the agenda for conservative intellectuals and Republican politicians. "From 1978 on," says Burton Pines, the former head of the American Enterprise Institute, "the single most important intellectual influence in America's conservative community has been the Wall Street Journal editorial page." Edwin Feulner, the president of the Heritage Foundation, another right-wing Washington think tank, calls the Journal "the real standard bearer for what is conservative orthodoxy."

The most famous example of the Journal's leadership is, of course, supply-side economics. In the mid-1970s, the Journal discovered, popularized and named the theory. Originally developed by University of Chicago economist Arthur Laffer and later embellished by Journal editorial writer Jude Wanniski, supply-side cut against the grain of traditional economics. Its basic tenet was simple: Cut taxes on the wealthy and their investments would stimulate the economy. The Treasury would not sustain a loss because the subsequent economic growth would generate more tax revenue, not less.

Throughout the latter years of the decade the Journal zealously promoted supply-side. In 1980, presidential candidate George Bush called it "voodoo economics," but his soon-to-be boss Ronald Reagan recognized the popular appeal of a no-pain, only-gain solution to the federal deficits that had grown during the Carter years. After Reagan was elected he embraced supply-side economics as administration policy. The Wall Street Journal had pulled off a palace coup. " The creation and implementation of the supply-side economic theory is unprecedented in journalism editorial history," says Eric Alterman, the author of "Sound & Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics." "To ask what else the Journal has done is like asking what else Einstein did besides the theory of relativity."

American Journalism Review


Since the WSJ practically wrote the book on the free market and it's become a big part of the GOP platform and lexicon, is it hypocritical for the GOP and it's new nominee to still claim to be for a free market but against open borders and immigration?

Funny. I wouldn't have ever thought that "free market" in economic theory or in the real world would ever mean to anyone totally without rules and protection of the subjects therein active. Do you really mean that last sentence of yours?
 
Hmm... Ask some Native Amercans how open borders and unlimited immigraton worked out. ;)
 
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