[Chaguito]

If trade is really “free,” I don’t understand how our workers can maintain, over the long haul, a standard of living higher than the Chinese with whom they compete.

If we export different things than we import, the standard of living of the Chinese dictates what we can charge to them, again forcing our labor costs down.

If China throws up impediments to our products, we can’t move them, again lowering our labor’s standard of living.

As I understand it, Trump is just wanting to force China to remove those impediments. The rest remains, for better or for worse.

[central_va]

I don’t understand how our workers can maintain, over the long haul, a standard of living higher than the Chinese with whom they compete.

They can't. Free Traitors™ want us to return to an agrarian society content with exporting food stuffs and raw natural resources in exchange for finished goods made by slaves.. That is the end result of "Free Trade".