Sunday, February 24, 2008

Fair Trade?





It seems the Adam Smith Institute has produced another report on Fairtrade, and thank God.

I have always been amazed how gullible those liberal do gooders are to fall for this hogwash. There is even a town in Lancashire, Garstang, that proclaims itself to be "The World's First Fair Trade Town".

Fairtrade receives £2m from the taxpayers and is backed by numerous dodgy celebs., themselves worth millions but with very long pockets, but always quick to squander tax money. That says all you need to know about it.

Fairtrade is yet another marketting ploy that shafts farmers and farm workers in developing countries. But as long as pinko/green liberals, and loaded celeberities, get a warm glow they will turn a blind eye to the reality and grandstand, despite the real results of their actions.

The developing world needs free trade not fair trade.

3 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Free trade not fair trade. Sounds good to me!

Gregg said...

Quite proud of that one myself Mark. Watch some bugger prove he thought of it first. Almost as good as your Better Off Off which really made Mrs B titter when I told her, she despises traffic lights almost as much as us.

Vindico said...

Spot on Gregg. Fairtrade simply benefits those who are inside the club. Paying above the market rate necessitates a list of 'preferred producers', since some producers have to be made worse off (aggregate demand across the market remains the same).

Fairtrade producers will be incentivised to boost production due to the increased price, while those not in the club will suffer from a dpressed world market price. As always, if you're inside the club things are rosy.

The only fair trade is free trade. What i find offensive is that it plays on peoples good nature and exploits their ignorance of basic economics.

I recall reading an article some time ago which suggested Costs Coffee charged an extra 10p for fairtrade coffee despite the real cost being just 1p. So Costa raked in 9p extra profit from those willing to pay extra to help coffee farmers. This is why they all support it, they gain financially.

It is totally wrong. And there ends the lesson from Vindico!