I'm a Democrat but I've gotta admit it's now Trump 2, Dems 0
Economists in liberal enclaves pushed for “globalization,” arguing that cheap goods made abroad would fatten the pocketbooks of all us back here in the United States. Despite pleas from unions, our elected leaders happily agreed. Both Republicans and Democrats signed up for NAFTA and, later, China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
But all did not go well. From steel plants in Ohio to furniture factories in North Carolina, American companies suddenly found themselves competing against Chinese labor that paid a few pennies to each of Joe Six Pack’s dollars. You don’t need a PhD in Keynesian economics to predict the result: U.S. companies shut down, or moved operations abroad.
To be sure, Americans have gotten a lot of cheap goods in return for this deal. But there’s a catch: millions of voters no longer have the jobs – or a livable income – to afford them. Initially, economists believed that this would be a temporary condition. Surely, they argued, these unemployed workers would find new jobs that paid just as good as the old.
Last summer, however, academics released a study that took 38 pages to acknowledge the obvious: they were wrong. It turns out that our political class had sold off the American dream to the Chinese and given blue-collar workers – and their communities – an economic nightmare in its place.
Economists in liberal enclaves pushed for “globalization,” arguing that cheap goods made abroad would fatten the pocketbooks of all us back here in the United States. Despite pleas from unions, our elected leaders happily agreed. Both Republicans and Democrats signed up for NAFTA and, later, China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
But all did not go well. From steel plants in Ohio to furniture factories in North Carolina, American companies suddenly found themselves competing against Chinese labor that paid a few pennies to each of Joe Six Pack’s dollars. You don’t need a PhD in Keynesian economics to predict the result: U.S. companies shut down, or moved operations abroad.
To be sure, Americans have gotten a lot of cheap goods in return for this deal. But there’s a catch: millions of voters no longer have the jobs – or a livable income – to afford them. Initially, economists believed that this would be a temporary condition. Surely, they argued, these unemployed workers would find new jobs that paid just as good as the old.
Last summer, however, academics released a study that took 38 pages to acknowledge the obvious: they were wrong. It turns out that our political class had sold off the American dream to the Chinese and given blue-collar workers – and their communities – an economic nightmare in its place.
