Dear Editor
America is built on free trade. Companies are allowed to succeed or fail, with few exceptions, such as Chrysler in 1979, based on their business competence. Fair trade, where companies compete on level ground with the same rules, is integral for free trade.
E-Z-GO and Club Car have been competing on level ground by the same rules in the golf car and small vehicle market for over 60 years. They are a classic example of free trade in a free market, where one company competes fairly against another company. The company with the best perceived value- quality and cost- wins. Some years it has been E-Z-GO, some years it has been Club Car. Other companies have entered the market, but their products were not good enough to compete. Manufacturers from other lands have attempted to enter the market, but overseas shipping costs have proven too much a burden to compete successfully. Yamaha was able to be competitive in the market, but only by building a factory in Newnan, Ga.
Recently, however, companies from China have entered the market with costs independent of any economic law or principle. These products cost much less than any company in American can even build a product, let alone make a profit. Their products are copies of Club Cars and E-Z-GOs with no magical material, no extraordinary factory and no supersonic shipping method. The American market, as a direct result of the Chinese government subsidizing these products, is being harmed.
Milton Friedman wrote, “The existence of a free market does not of course eliminate the need for government. On the contrary, government is essential both as a forum for determining the rules of the game and as an umpire to interpret and enforce the rules decided on.”
Hitler said he would “destroy democracy with democracy.” He didn’t destroy democracy, but severely wounded it enough to show that it can be done. China is, not outwardly stated as a goal but obvious by their actions, severely wounding fair capitalism with hostile capitalism. They are using our free market to destroy our free market.
Both E-Z-GO and Club Car have, and still can, compete with any company in any country if the costs of production and profit motive are based on true economic principles. Neither Club Car nor E-Z-GO, or Toyota or General Motors, can compete in a market where cost of production is borne by an astronomically wealthy government whose goal is to destroy the market. The free market that built America and brought prosperity to Americans and was promoted by great economists such as Milton Friedman was not meant to force a company to compete against a government. No company can do that.
Club Car and E-Z-GO and other American companies are asking our government to “enforce the rules” and make the market free and fair again, in the form of tariffs. This method is preferable to having government subsidize American industry, as it makes China bear the costs of its own unfair trade practices. It is also preferable to simply blocking China from our markets, because if they do invent a magical material or extraordinary factory or supersonic shipping method they and the market should be able to profit from their discovery. Their fraudulently costed products, however, will no longer freely carry the harmful and unfair Chinese government subsidies. Free and fair and competitive trade will once again bring the American market the best product at the best price.
Fair competition does that.
thank you
Mike Fulford
Augusta, Ga.
