"...you were originally arguing that free trade policies weren’t to blame for the loss of manufacturing jobs..."You may be thinking of someone else. I leave blame to experienced professional blamers.
Let's go with facts, like how import taxes are lower now than they were in '72. Now, lots of people say lower taxes are bad for us, but even though over the past 37 years fewer people work for factory owners, US manufacturing output about tripled, household real incomes are up 80%, and last July's unemployment rate was the same as it was in July '72. So lower import taxes did not shut down manufacturing, did not bring on unemployment and did not hurt incomes.
Now that Obama's raised import taxes, 5 million people lost jobs, factory output is down, and incomes have fallen. No matter who you blame, it's a fact that higher import taxes hasn't help us.
You said: "iirc the old line is "the US shipped its manufacturing base overseas." The facts are there, but anyone married to an opinion isn't going to let reality get in their way. " It sounds like you're arguing that because productivity numbers are up that we didn't ship our manufacturing base overseas? When I was kid, I wore clothes that were made in America, I ate off of plates that were made in America with silverware that was made in America, my bicycle was made in America, my lunchbox was made in America, etc etc etc. Where is all that stuff
manufactured now? Rhetorical question, it's made in China of course where some of the most productive workers on the planet work 15 hr days at about $.64/hr. Productivity may be up but you can't logically conclude from that that we haven't shipped our manufacturing base overseas.
"No matter who you blame, it's a fact that higher import taxes hasn't help us." what has helped us even less was ousourcing our manufacturing base.