First off, we do NOT have free trade; in fact, we haven’t had free trade ever. We have highly managed trade, we have the tariffs and quotas and restrictions you protectionists want - and it hasn’t worked too well, has it?
Now, about the loss of manufacturing jobs and unions. Is it any surprise that many of those union jobs went overseas? It was simply economically unfeasible to keep them here. It’s either close down altogether and let everything in the chain die, or move some of the production overseas and keep a good portion of the chain.
Of course, you’d rather see the whole system torn down and burn rather than reformed, right?
How do you think we can tax ourselves into prosperity?
Among the top 10 Chinese exported products to America, only LCD television screens from China (HTS code 8528.72.72.50) is charged with tariff duties. The duty rate is 5%. Based on that 5% rate, the U.S. government collected $219.2 million in tariff duties ($4.4 billion times 5%) on that one product category. All other top 9 exports from China are duty free.