I'd also agree with you but free trade leads to the normalization of world wide income. Our standard of living will go down or stay the same until everyone catches up if there are no barriers. This is a side effect of free trade that no one talks about, and although I am a Republican and usually think along those lines, in this instance I truly believe unions in general have a very valid point when our manufacturing gets exported. This cannot be prevented without protectionism. This is Exhibit A. Those jobs are not coming back unless we use high tech that can only be done the the good old US of A, and we both know that doesn't last long. So it is in an industry such as space, defense, etc., that we can keep some of those jobs, but not in auto mfg. We can do it in education, health services, but not in textiles. We used to do it in energy, but much less so not. And so on... Imagine keeping some $700 billion annually by producing our own energy instead of sending that overseas.
Yes, our standard of living would go up if we reinvested our dollars in products from American producers in the USA, but not everyone wants to pay top dollar for everything; they can't anymore. |
