@elliswonk.bsky.social Which economists do you have in mind here? From what I can tell, the vast majority of economists are very good at recognizing the tradeoffs that result from policy choices, including those arising from trade policy.
GREED is the reason for the season
It got really out of hand when Reagan unleashed oligarchy.
You remember Scalia and his cronies in the Heritage Foundation; they declared that corporations are people, and open the gates to pillage our people, lie on their taxes, and destroy the constitution.
Well those economists who take Welfare Economics seriously (me) said that the winners in the Free Trade deal have to compensate the losers such that no one is worse off. Instead governments cut corporate taxes & slashed the social safety net. Winners' gains were greater & the losers' losses greater
There is only one outcome to capitalism. Wealth is a pie. There used to be a lot of slices. Those slices were sliced smaller, and pieces moved around. Those that hoard it, their pieces grew larger. Repeat until there is one piece and one owner.
Everyone else knew free trade capitalism is a bad deal for workers. One of the fundamental principles is that workers will relocate to better jobs as companies relocate to cheaper labor. It just doesn’t make sense. Don’t blame China for this.
Fundamental failure of economics happens in the first tenets. Humans are not rational. One human can be rational, but more than one human is a ridiculous moron.
Been shouting this for nearly 3 decades. Since Walmart’s founder Sam Walton passed, his heirs, the cheap f🤬cks, outsourced everything made previously in the U.S. to China, to import cheaply, for pure greed. Walmart employees still top most states as requiring TANF assistance and welfare/Medicaid.
Oligarch global trade: Cheap labor at all costs. Fired more expensive Americans & move off-shore. Short-term profits, but long-term economic decline is almost certain, right? A nation that doesn't invest in its own people losses. China: "Capitalists will sell you the rope to hang them with."
Complicated issue and super nuanced. Unfortunately, Trump’s ego and self indulgent behavior will get in the way, dividing Americans so nothing gets done or nothing endures from administration to administration. We need adults in charge. Hold on for 2 years at least.
Greenspan certainly screwed some many citizens over with his oops... I was wrong about insecure workers being good for the economy bs too. I'm surprised there isn't a fee to blink the exploits are so overwhelming
Economists are narcissists that work for narcissists while gambling with every natural resource. I'm livid over this Reagan supply side grift and delusions of Clinton opposition over decades of GMO pollution that most countries banned and all the "marketed" science now being pulled bc of fraud.
Most of our trade deals did (nominally) consider environmental protections and workers rights. Just nobody ever bothered to make those provisions enforceable, or when they did, they weren’t enforced.
Excellent article, very analytical and with historical context. I think the European Union addresses it best in a "quasi" market environment used in each countries geographic economic givebacks for common participation initiatives.
They don't come out and say it clearly, but they drastically underestimated the value of family, friends and familiarity of place to the workers who were made redundant by free trade with China. Rather than retrain or relocate, those workers just gave up, retired early - even in their 20s and 30s.
Bottom line: the US benefited from free trade with China - when you're only counting dollars. Rich people and corporations are significantly better off, more dollars won by them than lost by the less wealthy Americans who had their jobs destroyed.
The human cost is a different calculation. The people who lost their livelihoods didn't step up to retrain and/or relocate to compete for "new opportunities," they kicked back and gave up, staying in their familiar places with their friends and family becoming poor, malcontent, and voters.
the US loses either way- free trade with China and they out manufacture the US. tariffs on China and we pay more for many basic goods- while China diversifies their trade through Africa and Asia.
Blaming China for US company's own action to sending jobs there to maximize profit for US CEO's & US shareholders is like blaming the army of illegal workforce in farm industry for "stealing" American jobs because US farms can't survive without them 🤣🤷
American Greed and Stupidity 😂 Millionaires became Billionaires, American workers watched their jobs disappear. And still they bought Made in China to save a few bucks. While those few Bucks made China a Super Power. The Rich sold you out to become super rich, the rest Bought the crap that they made
Economists wielding massive policy influence while disregarding the suffering of citizens.
If only there was a way to avoid this? Get diverse perspectives? Maybe include voices from different walks to ensure everyone has equity in the future. Hmm… 🤔
9/11 and the economic shift to homeland security / defense kicked my career in the balls. We had to relocate the family 1000 miles away to recover, and while my pre 9/11 career was one job running 12 years, post 9/11 I bounced through 8 jobs in three cities over the next 11 years.
The cost of those moves was high, sometimes my new employers helped to pay for it, usually they didn't. Uprooting from friends and family into new places is a different, sometimes more significant, kind of cost.
I can see how lower skill workers either couldn't afford or just wouldn't try to move
It’s a complex issue that is easily spun one way or the other depending on what lens you use and where you sit. The change agent character of Capitalism -even if 100% intra USA- always destroys something in the process.
But as a start, it helps to remember, we called China, China didn’t call us.
This is a serious discussion about a real thing that happened. Just because we say something negative about economic policies re: China doesn’t mean it’s “Sinophobia”. Are you for real?
Comments
It got really out of hand when Reagan unleashed oligarchy.
You remember Scalia and his cronies in the Heritage Foundation; they declared that corporations are people, and open the gates to pillage our people, lie on their taxes, and destroy the constitution.
Compare to.polling numbers for Trump during the campaign.
US companies are the ones destroying US labor
If only there was a way to avoid this? Get diverse perspectives? Maybe include voices from different walks to ensure everyone has equity in the future. Hmm… 🤔
Oh well. Probably unsolvable.
I can see how lower skill workers either couldn't afford or just wouldn't try to move
But as a start, it helps to remember, we called China, China didn’t call us.
Capitalism is a VAMPIRE and no boost to capital at the expense of labor has ever, EVER come back to benefit labor.
Disagree? That's fine; you're still wrong.