I'm all for eliminating regulations on small businesses and lowering their taxes. It's the multinational corporations and wall st which needs to be regulated more IMO.
We had a well regulated economy from the 40's to 1980 that worked great and provided a fair and level playing field. That was the strongest economic period in our country's history and it was only possible because of the regulations and taxes put on large corporations. We only started having problems when conservatives started eliminating the regulations on big business.
A free market is not a fair market when the other countries we trade with do not have free markets as well. For example goods coming from China get a tariff of ~2%, but when we export goods to them the average tariff is over 20%. How is that "a fair chance to prosper"?
Is it really fair for American labor to have to compete against third world sweatshop labor?
Free trade would only be effective if the rest of the world played by the same set of rules. Without that, free trade just lowers American workers wages.
So what does free trade have to do with a free market, not much, what does it have to do with exporting jobs, not much...again you are associating his ideas with clutch words in order to spin your argument, Ron Paul has voted against free trade and outsourcing fact:
from wikipedia:
He opposes many
free trade agreements (FTAs), like the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
[48] stating that "free-trade agreements are really managed trade"
[49] and serve special interests and big business, not citizens.
[50] He voted against the
Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), holding that it increased the size of government, eroded U.S. sovereignty, and was unconstitutional.
[48] He has also voted against the
AustraliaU.S. FTA, the
U.S.Singapore FTA, and the
U.S.Chile FTA, and voted to withdraw from the
WTO. He believes that "fast track" powers, given by
Congress to the
President to devise and negotiate FTAs on the country's behalf, are unconstitutional, and that Congress, rather than the executive branch, should construct FTAs.
[50]