There's nothing wrong with Friedman's life's work.
Nor Samuelson's, for that matter.
They are both Nobel Laureates, afterall.
It's just that Milton has become more senile and set in his ways.
He no longer has the mental agility to evaluate changing market conditions and adjust his perspective accordingly. He just chants the same old mantra, even though market conditions have changed.
It is not free trade that plagues us. It is not low paying jobs. It is the lack of will of Americans to educate themselves in new career fields. George Bush had it right all long in the debates when he spoke of education being the key to evolving the jobs market, and America. But, people expect the government to hand jobs to them. This is NOT the Soviet Union. "Every man, according to his ability."
Brazil accuses us of retaliation for placing tariffs on their exports, just because they place tariffs on our goods coming into Brazil. They are saying, never mind that we are unfair to you, it's mean for you to protect yourselves by reciprocating.
Free Trade is a lose, lose, for the American worker. Of all these new jobs that have been "created", most are at poverty level on the pay scale and a full half of these jobs have been filled by immigrants.
Genie in the bottle my foot. There are simple ways to cram him back in his bottle, and it must be done. Sure the American worker is "flexible", but flexibility is impossible when there is no living wage jobs to be had. Bush talks about new jobs as medical techs, and that is the only field that has openings and won't take long to fill the need, then what?
This hemorrhage of manufacturing and industry must stop.