[Cronos]

The reason this is important is that the vast number of people in the Third World means that any job that is outsourceable will be incredibly cheaper to do so. This will create a race to the bottom in which our standing of living will approach the Third World more than the reverse will happen.

well, I would doubt that argument for the following reasons:

1. most Chinese are illiterate, never mind the 'statistics' brought forth by the Communists
2. These can only be competition to blue-collar workers or to machines.
3. However, American blue-collar workers and our machines (and Japanese robots) are generally more productive, giving more value for money
4. Hence, it makes more economic sense for some things NOT to go to China.
5. However, cheap toys etc. can be manufactured in China with no loss to us
6. For the educated workforce, they do have some numbers, but even they are running short in supplying new graduates
7. The market won't be as wunderbar as it was during the bubble economy but the supply-demand ratio is just about evening out -- including the influx of educated workers from India and CHina
   
   So, I'd say that while our tech workers won't earn the huge amounts they did (some just by proclaiming themselves html 'programmers'), they won't earn only $5000 a year

[1rudeboy]

Here, we have the result of a frantic google search under "free trade:" a Lyndon Larouche article. Amusing because some of the usual suspects bump the thread thinking it's for real. Also, near the end, we discover the ironic fact that posting a Larouch thread is an excellent springboard into a discussion about how free-traders are cult-like.