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It isn’t Free Trade that’s driving manufacturing jobs overseas.

Massive corporate taxation, limitless legal vulnerability, crushing environmental regulation and pro-Union arbitrary Government: these are why industry chooses to locate away from the USA.

Protectionism would be the final nail in the coffin. The last vestiges of American industry would be turned into feather-bedded welfare cases, and freeborn Americans would be forced to buy their stuff from the Government store.

Protectionism will also increase Government power. The Dems will collect all of that lovely tariff money and spend it on union pension bailouts or some damn thing.

America has tied its own hands behind its back with a ludicrous knot of EPA regulations, crushing taxation and arbitrary Government (just ask Gibsons guitars).

America needs to untie those knots - not wrap itself up in more of them in a fit of misplaced faux-patriotic anger.

...Protectionism would be the final nail in the coffin. The last vestiges of American industry would be turned into feather-bedded welfare cases, and freeborn Americans would be forced to buy their stuff from the Government store.

Protectionism will also increase Government power. The Dems will collect all of that lovely tariff money and spend it on union pension bailouts or some damn thing....

Hugo Chavez dictated such low prices on food that there is no profit and stores failed. He owns the oil company. A once prosperous country that exported is now under the control of a communist dictator (who like Castro holds "elections").

2003 - Chavez foes slam land grants - 'Agrarian Reform' and "Land Redistribution' in Venezuela ***Under the law, the land distributed to the peasants is still owned by the state, and the government must encourage the formation of peasant cooperatives and collective farms, where the state is to provide housing, health care and education. The law also gives the government power to dictate how private land can be used, based on soil conditions and the country's food-security needs.

Critics argue that the law violates the right to private property and is a throwback to state-planned communist economies."....

2004 - Venezuela to decriminalize theft "Thou shalt not steal say the Ten Commandments, but it might eventually no longer apply if you are starving in Venezuela.The poor, oil-rich nation is considering decriminalizing the theft of food and medicine in cases where a thief is motivated by extreme hunger or need.

Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros said the so-called "famine theft" clause should be part of a broad penal code reform measure for humanitarian reasons. "This is a guide for judges to avoid injustice," said Mr Fontiveros, who is in charge of drafting the reforms. "They lock up for years a poor person who lives in atrocious misery and what they need is medicine."

2004 - Penalties Stiff for Slander in Venezuela "CARACAS, Venezuela — A new penal code approved by Venezuela's Congress would stiffen prison sentences for slander and libel, drawing criticism from opponents of President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez on Friday called the new rules an attempt to crack down on dissent.

The changes are "incompatible with freedom of expression," said Alberto Arteaga, a law professor at Venezuela's Central University who often defends opposition politicians in court.

Under the old penal code, the maximum sentence for libel was 18 months in prison. The new code, passed by Congress late Thursday, increased the maximum to four years in prison.

Sentences for slander — statements that impugn "the honor, the reputation, the respect" of a person — were lengthened from eight days to up to one year. There are no exceptions when the speech is directed at public officials."......

2005 Chavez poised to take control of banks***Caracas - Venezuela is preparing to take political control of private banks as part of a drive to spread “revolutionary” government control over the economy of the world's fifth largest oil exporter. Trino Alcides Diaz, Venezuela's banking superintendent, has privately told the heads of several of the country's banks that President Hugo Chavez wants to place two government representatives on the institutions' governing boards…..***

2007 - "BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Delivering on campaign pledges to move Venezuela toward socialism, President Hugo Chavez announced plans Monday to nationalize the country's telephone and electricity sectors and hinted that he would seek a majority stake in so-called heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin.

"We are heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it," Chavez said at a ceremony in Caracas to swear in new Cabinet members.".... Source

Why should I believe that? I’ve been being told all my life that free trade is good for me, and my standard of living has been declining for the same amount of time. Free trade is not free if it’s not fair, and the FACT is that we do business with other countries that pay their workers a slave wage with no questions asked. We can’t compete with chinese slave labor, nor should we. We should not be trading with them period. But they and plenty of other countries are perfectly willing to protect THEIR markets against OUR goods, whether openly with the tariffs, or under the table by making agreements and then failing to honor them.

Oh, and let us not forget that if we get uppity and expect a living wage they just bring in a few million illegal migrants to replace us.

All the things you mentioned are problems, big ones, but if we don’t do something about trade, the 1% are going to continue to drink our milkshake until there’s nothing left but a giant sucking sound.