Yes you make good points, however; you only see half the picture which is cause for concern. From your writing I would have to assume that your net worth has increased in the last 30 years. If so good for you that is after all what America is about...the pursuit of happiness etc. You label of me has a protectionist is so far off the mark as to miss it entirely. You crude attempts to question my education is also insulting. One of the first rules you should have learned is that statistics can say whatever the person wants them to say that is why I have not made specific use of numbers. There are many ways to take your numbers dissect them and come up with something totally different. I have chosen not to engage in that insane debate. I am merely stating some observations from the other side of the coin. Free trade is good is everyone plays fair up until the last 5 to 10 years this has been the rule. But since NAFTA the rules have changed and not all to the good. You casually dismiss some of my arguments as nonsense but it is the truth that most family are two incomers now not one as it was back pre 1970's and this more then any trade has increased the net worth of America. Yet you casually dismiss this fact. We are not the technology powerhouses we were 50 years ago compared to the rest of the world this is a fact. Do we still have a led? yes somewhat but for how long? China's military is a lot closer than you think. If not you would not be hearing rumblings inside Washington that you do. I understand WTO well enough. I also know about the soft lumber issues with Canada. Do you understand that the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to set tariffs and excise taxes? We no longer have that authority in our elected leaders to any mentionable degree. In closing the rest of the picture is this:
There is a growing percentage of America that is left out of this economic boom. You may not what to see it but it is there. 401k are great I agree but I know a great many people that do not have one. Ira's again a great idea yet again large numbers of people do not have one. Home ownership is great yet again a large amount of people rent to them the recent increase in home prices does not increase their net worth. About 50% of American households own Stocks which is great and those 50% have benefited from this great economy yet 50% do not and have not. The net worth of America has gone up for all America true but if you factor out the top 30% of American families the other 70% has not seen that much of an increase in net worth. Economies are not a zero sum game and short term trade imbalances are not bad in and of themselves. However prolonged imbalances are bad because they will over time drain capital from one country to another. We are sending billions of dollars of notes overseas every day. We must repay those notes. This gives countries power over our future. If say China or Japan decides to stop buying our debt the dollar will go in a free fall overnight. Show me where we have a technological edge in this country over and above those of other countries. Hell IBM just sold their PC business to China. Our college education system is not the draw it use to be either. Just because you wish a thing is does not mean it is. There are always many sides to this debate. Some people are hurt by free trade some benefit from it. However, it becomes a problem when the majority are harmed and the minority benefit.
There is a growing percentage of America that is left out of this economic boom. Those free trade dreamers forget that the majority of people have IQs of 100 or below.
And their utopia makes no provision for the future of those workers.
I note that a cleaning woman (so I'm sexist) works as hard as any MBA, yet earns so much less.
Why is that?
Because the MBA's and JD's make the laws, directly or by guile.
And those laws oppress the manual laborers, whom the educated elite fancy do 'menial' labor, compared the their own more important work.
And so to keep the educated elite in clover, they exploit the voiceless working poor.
And as a percentage of that elite have grown in power, they now are exploiting the middle class, under the guise of building a new global economy.
Yesterday they came for manual workers by flooding the labor pool with immgrants--legal and illegal immigrants.
Today they come for tech support workers via immigration and outsourcing.
Tomorrow, they come for your job.