Alas, for years most American consumers have focused simply on price, with little concern about the long-term consequences of not supporting their community or country. So much of what we buy, from oil and cars to TVs, VCRs, stereos, computers, clothes, appliances, furniture, and even food is made in foreign countries.

By the early '90s our trade deficit had reached a horrendous TEN BILLION dollars a MONTH. Worse, throughout the '90s, as the government was telling us how great the economy was (and how the "old rules" no longer applied in the allegedly new "hi-tech-driven" economy) the trade deficit steadily increased to THIRTY billion dollars a month.

By this point the foundation of the economy was so weak it only took a small blow to knock it down. And yet we still haven't learned: Despite 9/11/01 the trade deficit has continued to increase, and recently passed FORTY billion dollars a month!

In letting the politicians and broadcast media keep our attention focused on taking pride in how free our trade with other countries is, we haven't paid enough attention to how un-free our domestic economy has become. The size and power of our government has grown tremendously in recent decades, to the point that now nearly HALF of all income is taken by the government (via income, sales, and property taxes).

Yet products produced in foreign countries are not subject to most of these taxes, making them far cheaper to produce. (Not to mention that foreign companies are generally not required to provide the same worker safety and health benefits as Americans expect.)

Furthermore, in a world of six billion people (most of whom will work for little money by our standards), if the transportation costs are sufficiently low it will almost always be possible to find somebody somewhere who can produce something more cheaply than it can be produced in our country (of one-quarter of one billion people).

In recent decades transportation costs have indeed been sufficiently low, due to plentiful oil and huge cargo ships. And now, "thanks" to the internet and other hi-tech telecommunications, many services (such as telephone customer support) can be done more cheaply elsewhere as well.

But this does NOT mean we MUST buy things from foreigners. Freedom does not mean being forced to purchase the lowest priced item or service; it means the freedom to choose what to buy based on our entire set of values.

All this foreign production of products and services might not be so bad (except for the resultant lack of variety in domestic jobs) if all the money we pay out was used to buy other products and services from us. But it isn't. Much of the money is used NOT to buy products and services FROM us, but rather to BUY US -- that is, our land, buildings, companies, etc.

(Sometimes this is indirect; for instance, the money we pay for a DVD player from Asia might first be used to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, which then uses that money to buy even more of us than they already do using the money we pay them directly.)

Thus we find ourselves unemployed, surrounded by products we didn't make (or earn by making other products and services in trade), but were obtained (ultimately) by selling off control of our assets.

The economy is NOT going to eventually fix itself. We need to start paying attention to every purchasing decision we make and support our community and country -- even if that initially means buying fewer things and paying more for each.

Clearly the most fundamental solution to our severe economic problems is to eliminate all domestic taxes. There is absolutely no excuse for having any domestic tax (income, sales, property, whatever) as long as anything is being imported.

(Which makes further sense since so much tax money goes to defend ourselves against, or "nation-build", foreign countries.)

This would also be much more in keeping with the way the founders of our country intended things to be. For instance, taxing personal income went so against the principles this country was founded upon that for most of our history it was unconstitutional. So what did the politicians do? In 1913 they got our Constitution amended to permit it!

Initially taxes on imports would admittedly be huge, given how huge government spending has become. As people get back to work, however, and we reduce government spending to levels more appropriate for a free country (not socialist or world policeman/subsidizer), the tax rates on imports would be correspondingly reduced.

The cheerleaders of the global economy (many of whom profit tremendously from the destruction of the American economy) will no doubt say this system isn't fair. But it is precisely their insistence that our trade policy be far more free than our domestic policy which has caused our dire economic situation.

Neal S. Reynolds is a free-lance writer who lives in Schaumburg.

Copyright (c) 2003 by Neal S. Reynolds