A well functioning society should be able to provide jobs for people of all skill levels. We have largely removed low-skill jobs from the US — now those jobs are done in cheaper countries. The result is that our low-skill workers can find no work.
But we get cheap stuff from China, so that’s a plus, right?
Well, the other side is: large segment of our society needs government support because there are no low-skill jobs here. Those people get bored and they break the law: violence, robbery, drugs, etc. There is a cost to us all for that. And those people breed — multi-generation households where no one ever has a job. Does that hurt our culture and cost us all? You bet.
Does all of this affect our schools?
Does it affect our elections? Do voters just want “free stuff” because they have no jobs?
That “cheap stuff” from China that we get because of “free trade” and the global marketplace?
It’s hideously expensive.
You cannot explain how tariffs address the core issues of why businesses are fleeing this country and the resulting slow growth of GDP. Tariffs and protectionism lower American consumers’ standard of living.