ay to improve the economy for all nations because it called for the release of high tariffs. A slowed economy (due to global inflation and high petroleum prices) is another reason why the popularity of free trade increased after the second World War (Augley, 27).The popularity of this policy has continued until now partly because third world countries acknowledge the way of life that industrialized nations have, and wish to have the same. Also, much of the public favors this plan because they do not want to see many people malnourished and living in poverty. However, many people do not realize that we have now created the way of life which cannot be had by everyone due to the enormous amount of energy which it requires. For example, it would be impossible for all humans to own and operate cars because there are no longer enough natural resources to provide the energy necessary for this commodity.Free trade has an underlying basis of individual liberty, and implies two symbolic freedoms (Audley, 21). The first being a cost-less solution to expanding the human scale, meaning that it is a method to improve the way of human life for the whole world, while costing nothing. This also means that free trade tries to enable many third world countries to become great and more advanced, like the well-off, industrialized nations. Environmentalists disagree with this because they believe that free trade does have a cost involved with it, that being the quality of life on earth. Studies have proven that currently, we are running out of fossil fuels. In fact, if we continue to consume them at the current rate, we will completely run out of all known reserves (for most major fossil fuels) in about than three hundred years.An example of degradation of the environment for the betterment of economy has occurred recently in Taiwan and South Korea. These two countries have achieved stunning rates of economic growth, and the World Bank views them a...
