NationStates Jolt Archive

Please lend your support to my Trade Justice proposal currently awaiting endorsements.

Many thanks.

The Constitutional Monarchy of Wienreich fully supports this motion, and if our country were a regional delegate we would give our endorsement to this most brilliant motion!

Trade Justice is neccessary to ensure that the evils of poverty are combated. Throwing money at poverty is not the way to solve anything. The people who live in poverty need to be empowered and this can be helped by the passing of this motion.

Ambassador Waldner-Plaffy

It is customary to post a copy of your proposal when asking for opinions of it.

Trade Justice
A resolution to reduce barriers to free trade and commerce.

Category: Free Trade
Strength: Strong
Proposed by: Bellaben
Description: NOTING WITH REGRET that something is very wrong with world trade - it's filling the pockets of the rich while ripping off the world's poorest people.

NOTING WITH REGRET that millions of people are stuck in the trade trap. No matter how hard they work, they earn less every year. The situation is so dismal, half the world's population now lives on less than US$2 a day - roughly the cost of a burger.

RECOGNIZES that trade rules are agreed at international level, and are supposed to make sure nations compete openly and fairly. FURTHER NOTES that in reality they don't.

FURTHER RECONIZES the problem is policies aren't decided democratically, but on the basis of who has the most economic clout. While paying lip-service to fairness, the richest countries, with their almost limitless resources, steer decision-making in their interests.

CONCERNED that the rules are rigged - loaded in favour of the wealthiest countries and their business interests. That many member nations are ill-equipped to enage in an effective defense of their business interests.

ENCOURAGES all member states to challenge and change the rules so they work for poor countries. Re-write them in favour of the poorest countries so they can develop, build their own industries, grow stronger, and one day compete as equals.

DECLARES that all member states must rewrite their trade rules to favour the poorest nations in the world. FURTHER DECLARES that we are following the idea of Fair Trade and not Free Trade. FINALLY DECLARES that the time is right. The rules must change. Help us press home the message.


Considering the amount of real world references, we will not be supporting this proposal.

Lady Desdemona of Merwell,
Senior UN representative,
The Black New World,
Delegate to The Order of The Valiant States

The United States of Allemande note that this is the world of NationStates, and not Real Life™. In Real Life™, some nations are poor because... There are barriers to the swift diffusion of technology, most notably the high costs of public education.


Geography differs among nations, and with it economic opportunity:


Some nations have access to the sea and some don't.


Some nations have lots of arable land and some don't.


Some nations have plentiful raw materials and some don't.


European colonisation produced political instability in the larger part of the world (through the imposition of artificial borders, the destruction of traditional social and political structures, etc.) and much of the world has not yet recovered from this instability.


Resources are limited, and in the competition for resources, some nations are better positioned (militarily, diplomatically, and economically) to command for themselves the lion's share of resources.
But again, this is not Real Life™.

This is NationStates, and in NationStates...
All nations begin on an equal footing. The wealth and vitality of your society depends entirely on the decisions that you make in shaping your country.


Geography is entirely notional, meaning that your nation may have whatever natural resources you wish for it to have, whatever climate you wish for it to have, however much arable land or access to the sea you wish for it to have, etc.


Your history is your own; you inherit no baggage from foreign imperial powers that you must overcome on your road to greatness.


Resources are unlimited, so no one can ever prevent your nation from getting what it needs whether from within its own borders or via trade.
There is a simple and devastating truth that arises from all of this: unlike Real Life™, if your nation is poor, it's your own d_mn_d fault.

I have several puppets. Most have strong to powerhouse economies (Allemande, for instance, is rated "All-Consuming"); a few do not. With regards to those that do not (such as the People's Republic of Community Property, whose economy is currently rated "Weak" [which is the best it's been in years, BTW - last year it was a "Basket Case"]), however, it would be dishonest of me to claim that anyone other than yours truly was responsible for its current condition. The People's Republic is a "Basket Case" because its economic policies place environmental protection, social equality, and concern for every citizen above all else, even personal productivity or economic freedom. It is the perfect democratic communist society, the ideal of what non-aggressive, non-expansive, pacifistic Marxism could be.

Which is why its economy is an absolute wreck.

In contrast, Allemande is the very quintessence of a Western industrial democracy; it leaves citizens largely free to govern their own affairs while trying to smooth capitalism's rough edges and provide a social safety net against life's little tragedies - but never to such an extent as to disincentivise individual responsibility. It's the very model of bourgeois centrism.

Which is why it embraces that most bourgeois of institutions, the free market - and why it enjoys the thoroughly bourgeois luxuries of conspicuous consumption.

Each nation is the final, logical result of its own policies. It would be hasty to call either one a failure. For their per capita income (according to ThirdGeek) of $1,806.25 and unemployment rate of 13.57%, the people of Community Property have won for themselves the benefits of living in a classless society, where all are equal to a fault; they enjoy free education, free housing, free health care, a pristine environment, and freedom from the pressures of competitive life. They can mess around all day at work and still get paid. Is that a bad deal? I guess it depends on your P.O.V.

And Allemande, in turn, in exchange for all the pressures and anxieties of life in the Wild, Wild West, gets to enjoy an average per capita income of $31,553.63, with only 2.55% unemployment. Of course, there's always another deadline to meet, another paycheck to earn, and a new Jones to keep up with each and every day (not that you stand a chance of keeping up with all of them), but this is how the people of Allemande prefer life, because it's the system they've built for themselves. Is that a bad deal? I guess it depends on your P.O.V.

So why in the world would you tear down the rich to benefit the poor? In NationStates, as opposed to Real Life™, both rich and poor have chosen their lives, and have arrived at what - for them - is the essence of how they want to live. Who are you to gainsay them?

If you want to increase happiness, strive for every nation to have a government that reflects the wishes of the people - their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Then the rich will become rich because they desire wealth, and the poor poor because they want something else, and everyone will be happy.

Because, at the end of the day, this is NationStates - and not Real Life™.