[ARCADIA]

Libertarians might say all to the good. But this overlooks that they live in a sovereign country. The downward adjustment in wages and salaries necessary to bring the US into equilibrium with the global labor market requires reductions that cannot be achieved.

Exactly. At some point the system will be forced beyond the point of no return; beyond where we can maintain a standard of living through a stream of endless debt. That is when the the trading arraignment will end. When that happens the US and much of Europe will precarious position, our domestic suppliers will have to race to meet the new demands. We would need to raise new capital to finance the expansion of our domestic productive resources; even if it means writing off and defaulting on part of the debt. Free trade proponents are playing a very dangerous game; we know about the short term gains, but once those are exhausted, we will be left with long term instability, and even the real possibility of a major war.

[A. Pole]

Exactly. At some point the system will be forced beyond the point of no return; beyond where we can maintain a standard of living through a stream of endless debt.

There is one dangerous aspect which needs to be stressed. It is much easier technically for society to tolerate the raise in standard of living than the lowering of it beyond certain thresholds.

For example, one such threshold is the access for the most of population to means of transportation. If your people were used to move by foot, getting on bicycles and buses is feasible. But if your people were moving by cars, switching to the buses and bicycles or even foot might mean a major disruption.

I do not mean the plain dissatisfaction, I mean that physical reality of infrastructure - the highways and suburbs are not designed for people moving at slow speed.

This problem with transportation might never materialize, we might get new fuel technologies, cars made in China might be cheap enough for everybody, etc ... Still the general rule is that reduction of standard of living must be disruptive even if the society is willing to go along!

Also in the past in time of crises or depression people could fall back on farming or move in with their relatives living on the farms - this was being done during the Great Depression. Today it is possible for the few.

Another thing is global trade which creates complex network of dependencies. Since economy of scale encourages further division of labor, spare parts for one necessary product might be made in different parts of the world. One of the key if not the most important reason for economic collapse in Soviet Union was that after the separation of individual republics and disruption of supply networks the production could not be continued.

If the globalization cannot be avoided, then it must be MANAGED in the direction of raising the standard UP in poorer countries without lowering them significantly in the affluent ones.