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America cannot force her trading partners to impose on their manufacturers, all of America's "great ideas," with their attendant increases in production costs. America is not about to abandon all the "great ideas" enacted by Congress. Consequently, American manufacturers cannot compete in America, so nearly 80-percent of the fabric industry has moved off shore. This same situation applies to furniture, steel products, electronics, and almost everything else. The absence of standards on imported goods has flooded America with inexpensive merchandise that all too often includes toxic food, toys, pet food and other products.

The underlying problem is this: what politicians call "free trade," is not free trade at all. It is managed trade. The government "manages" and manipulates domestic production costs through the enforcement of all the "great ideas" it has imposed.

The so-called "free trade" agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and others, exacerbate this problem by opening the American market to foreign goods without requiring foreign producers to meet American production standards that include all these "great ideas" American producers are required to meet.

This process of globalization is great for China, India, Mexico, and the other developing nations that flood our markets with their goods. But as the economic tide rises in these nations, it ebbs in the United States.

The economy has become the top issue in the upcoming elections. McCain wants to expand the NAFTA "free trade" model; Obama wants to renegotiate NAFTA. Neither will solve the problem because they treat only the symptoms of the real problem. The real problem, of course, is excessive government intervention in the market to achieve social objectives. Both candidates embrace the flawed notion that government's job is to manage markets, and the affairs of its citizens.

This backward thinking can only continue to destroy the wealth-making machinery that must continue to move to other nations -- or simply shut down operations.

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Henry Lamb is the Chairman of Sovereignty International , and founder of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO).

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

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