Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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Because I am an ass.
The BLS has decades of data about how free trade creates jobs. If you are part of an industry that is loosing jobs it is not because "jobs" are being shipped overseas, it is because competition and innovation are changing what skills are profitable in one place and your industry is not adapting. My guess is it has been propped up for years by government policy.
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Okay a couple points.
This isn't a question of the industry adapting. The "company" is doing fine. They are activiely outsourcing US jobs and benefiting from the lowered cost.
From what I have seen is the data you posted, jobs in the past decade have been flat. It isn't in the form of a pivot table but I suspect if I were to adjust for construction which was a bubble and government jobs which have increased then jobs would have declined.
Also this isn't free trade. Yes I agree free trade makes sense but this is a wholesale shift of production enabled by communication cost shifts and the digitalzation of products. And in looking at the data I suspect it is not just one industry.
Of course it is not one industry, and the last decade has been rather hard on jobs, but the point is still valid. Free trade generally results in more, higher paying, more skilled jobs, for everyone. Every economist in the world understands this, no matter what there political leanings otherwise. Some politicians like to campaign against free trade, but they always end up voting for it when they understand the facts. Look at Obama, who ran against NAFTA, and is now working to get two different free trade agreements through Congress as part of his latest pivot to jobs.
Free trade is good for the economy, even if it negatively impacts a few people who fail to adapt.