1. Are you really that far away from the people who have been fucked? YOu don't know anyone that lost a good job and never found another? You haven't seen the impact on their lives and the lives of their families? You don't know anyone that wasn't able to afford college and has had nothing but a series of shit jobs their whole lives, because there are so few decent jobs for people without degrees in this economy?
You really don't see the scale of the problem?
2. Hey, did you hear of the large tariffs that the EU has on cheap Chinese steel? They did it to protect their steel industries. Strange how that works.
3. The economic stress on white high school grads have been so bad that it is dragging down the numbers for the entire nation as a whole. That is a bad result of a bad policy.
Trade policy is not an individual choice. The voters elected a man who promised an American First trade policy. THat is how trade policy is done in a democratic nation.
WHAT BENEFIT, to those who are benefiting from "Free Trade" is worth a drop in life span for the nation as a whole?
1. I do know a few people like that, and I know about 1000 people not like that. You talk about the scale of the problem, yet all indicators would say it is tiny portion of our population. Do we drag down the economy to the level of the people are you worried about in order to try and help them?
a. I'm not aware of any indicators that it is a tiny portion of our population. I drive though the rural Rust Belt regularly, and I see mile after mile, town after town, that have been utterly fucked.
b. Nothing about this involves "dragging our economy down. Is Germany's economy dragged down, by their healthy manufacturing sector, or their trade surplus? What about Japan?
Right now that same scenario of not being able to afford college and having nothing but a series of shit jobs their whole lives plagues the inner city of almost every major city in the US, why is it you are not concerned about them and want our trade policies to help them more? You seem to have a very narrow focus of whom you want to help.
NOt at all. But those people are CONSTANTLY being discussed and targeted. It is the working class white, the Rust Belt, Appalachia, ect, that have been ignored by policy makers for generations.
Also, while the number of people employed in the manufacturing industry has declined from 17 million to 12 million, the output over that same time has doubled.
Should we have economic policies in place to slow the efficiency of our factories so that they have to employ more people?
No, I've been clear that I want Trade Policy to address the losses in jobs from TRADE, not automation.
Sooo, not sure why you asked that question and I hope we don't waste any more time on it.
2. But it did not protect their steel industries, all it did was change where they imported their steel from. They do not import any less steel than they did prior to the additional tariffs. All they did was make the cost of everything that has steel in it more expensive.
a. BUt it reveals their whining about US doing the same thing to be nothing but pure hypocrisy.
b. Link?
3. Trade policy is not an individual choice, but trade deficits are in part. How many things do you have in your house that say made in somewhere other than the United States. What brand of TV do you watch? Where is the computer you are using made?
In part. But the way to address it is Trade POlicy.
A more thorough look at the study that you posted earlier shows that there are many more factors other than just employment. Here is a more indepth look at the study...
Death Rates Rising for Middle-Aged White Americans, Study Finds
Not sure what you thought that linked showed. The factors are all factors that are driven b despair.
"They concluded that taken together, suicides, drugs and alcohol explained the overall increase in deaths"
I do not see economic isolationism as an "America First" policy, I see it as the policy of a man who cares more about cheers at his pep rallies than the long term economic health of our country.
Big difference between wanting better, fairer, more mutually beneficial trade deals, and Isolationism.
Is Germany isolationist? THey have a trade SURPLUS. Is Japan? Is South Korea?
Hell, is China? THey have the largest trade surplus in the world.