That bothers me that you would think of yourself in those terms. I'll bet a lot of people are sometimes afraid to state their opinion or join in here for fear of being run off the board or ridiculed because they don't agree on every single thing they "think" is acceptable here.
I can't get into this too much right now, and like the Wal Mart thing, on the surface of it, it isn't all good or all bad for America. Some benefit from the trend, and others suffer. There are shades in between, things vary from region to region, so then you have to start looking for net effects which are visible in every community across the country. Some places are booming, some places go bust, and some are both at the same time (like my area). Now. I'm concerned about the net effect and the future effect, and I don't need to look at charts to interpret what I see happening around me and hear on the news. Kodak shuts down or downsizes a huge plant in New York, Maytag moves a lot of its operations to Mexico, the furniture business in North Carolina is declining, it's happening all the time now and in hundreds of ways around the country, and people are talking about it, noticing it, and it doesn't matter which party they vote.
In some ways free trade is good in that we get lots of nice, cheap stuff, and in later years, I've seen things in stores and on the net from countries we never could purchase from in my narrower, younger world, like Russia, Romania, Argentina, Portugal (my favorite cookware was a store promo from there years back), etc., which formerly you either brought home as a tourist or things just didn't make their way into our markets from some countries.
Almost none of our clothing is made here. I don't know where bedding is made any more, but you can get beds in a bag, but if you want a plain set of full-sized matching sheets with pillowcases that I don't particularly even like, the cheapest I can find anywhere are in the $32+ range, some go in the $150 range (don't shop at Wal Mart, could probably save a little there lol). And they are not as nice as the plain percale or muslin, then no-iron synthetic-cotton blend ones we used to be able to buy in the $10-$20 range in the better stores years ago. I'm going to have to try to find some at garage sales. The nice, bargain ones get grabbed up on ebay like you wouldn't believe! And in all the stores left, K-Mart, Target, Marshall's, it's hard to find a complete set of anything like curtains. They are always out of part of it unless you get lucky and you don't have too many windows or you don't like their selection. I quit shopping the really nice stores years ago because prices got so high, even though I could have at times coughed up the cash, I can't justify in my conscience paying $80-$300 for a dress which I seldom wear any more anyway. I used to sew a lot, but that was for creative purposes, because by the time you buy all the proper stuff to make it really nice, you don't save anything unless it's bargain material or something for a kid.
Some guy on another forum lives in Brazil and commented to me that if they buy outside of their country, they have to pay 80% import tax on certain consumer items. I've also noticed when the big companies like Dell have good deals with coupons they throw out on the net, foreigners can't take advantage of them because the last big ticket item I bought from them I had to check a box that said I would not send it outside of the US, which I had no intention of doing because it was for personal use. I partly understand why they wouldn't want to deal with some foreigners, but I don't know why they are doing it and don't have the time to look into it. Lots of ebay sellers don't like to ship to foreigners, for example, usually for valid reasons. Net effect: less income flowing to America, more flowing out.
What I am getting at is that we are losing some business from foreigners. Surely that affects our GNP. I read about a guy from England who bought a plane ticket to come to New York so he could purchase something and got what he wanted and saved money besides. He either couldn't mail order it or the transaction would have been too expensive otherwise, probably because of duties imposed on his end. I can't remember why it worked out that way.
The first alarm bells started going off in my head many years ago when the corporations started getting so big globally and the UPC code was becoming so ubiquitous in so many countries. Also, the buyout and consolidation scramble started at almost the same time. American corporations don't necessarily have to expand, growing larger and larger, in order to prosper. Growing larger just shuts out the competition and makes that corporation richer, but the net effect may be in the negative when it comes to our GNP when those who can no longer compete with the mega-corporations close their doors forever.
It's not all one way or another way with me. There is some good to it, but now that I have seen the downside in the way of tremendous loss of jobs and loss of our traditional way of life, housing through the roof (good for some, bad for others) I've gotten very negative about free trade, especially when other countries practice protectionism and we don't.
I just don't like what I have seen with people tending to polarize into two classes, either rich or poor, and a fluid middle class which is being squeezed one way or the other. That's what I'm concerned about. I don't care whether they are white collar, blue collar or what. They are all American jobs, and if those who lose their jobs can't find equal or better replacement jobs, it affects all of us, in part, and contributes to the fact that our national foreign debt is so high and social security is in trouble.
Free trade seems to be working against us economically overall. If you can buy cheaper imported products, but lose your job or your housing, utility, and automobile costs go through the roof, and you have less disposable income or no income to buy anything, cheap or not, unless you are lucky and your skill is still marketable in the US, and you can surf the economic waves and come out on top of things.
The saying used to be guns and butter. Now it's guns and jacuzis. We have to have it both ways or our economy will suffer. No more sacrifices for Americans and fighting the terrorists. Enlistments are down. I wonder where that will lead us. Sorry, I've done it again. Too long a post that will cause those who read in shorter blurbs to go into skip mode. Just as well.