"slip in and out" ??? The comparison was directly related to your argument. Would it be better if I used only one comparison for all arguments? Would that upset you less?
Also, I didn't "lecture" you on anything. I explained a concept that you seemed to misunderstand. It was for the benefit of anyone else reading the thread, as well as you.
You are entrenched. I’ll take it to the bottom line. Borrowing from NVDave:
***
What Joe Lunchbucket knows about “free trade” is this:
Like other terms, "free trade" can be incorrectly defined and consequently misunderstood. The term "patriotism" gets similar treatment from Democrats.
1. He has to worry about his job like he never did before.
Horse crap. People have always had to worry about their jobs.
Do you think layoffs were invented when NAFTA was passed?
2. His wages haven’t increased the way they did in the past.
Again, horse crap. Do you think life was an endless string of healthy raises prior to 2000, or 1990, or [insert date here]?
3. He has illegal aliens coming into the country to take his job, and management trying to figure out how to take the whole job out of the country.
Illegals is a whole separate issue. You don't have to love illegal aliens in the US to love free trade.
Job outsourcing is just another competitive pressure in a labor market that has plenty of them already.
This cry is exactly the same as it was for those who's jobs are now done with machines. There were many impassioned, emotional appeals to stop mechanization of labor. But all the machines have made us wealthier, even though they "took away" some people's jobs. Despite all those jobs "taken away", the country is at full employment and then some.
4. And now, he has to worry about “what is in my food, toothpaste, dog food, etc?” and wonder if it is going to kill him.
This is another separate, but admittedly related, issue.
For the record, many of the flawed Chinese products were flawed because of bad American design! The Chinese manufactured exactly what they were told to.
That's not true in all cases, but sometimes it was our fault, not theirs.
We do need to hold imported products to the same standards, I agree.
Joe Lunchbucket votes. I live near lots of Joe Lunchbuckets. The free traders are pushing us to a tipping point. That tipping point is that the Joes are going to elect Hillary! as president. Now most Joes I know aren’t too keen on socialism, but they are even less thrilled about the problems they see on a daily basis now. We are running headlong to becomming a socialist state.
Lots of ignorant, self-centered college students vote too. Shall we throw out all reason and fact to pursue those voters? You seem to be advocating that very strategy to pursue "Joe Lunchbucket", regardless of his ignorance of basic economic facts.
I prefer to try and teach people about economics rather than pander to their ignorant phobias and superstitions. That strategy is a Democrat one.
I hope the free trade crowd has enough global investments to make it all worthwhile.
As a matter of fact, I do. And they're performing quite well right now. So are my American investments.
And you know what? Anyone else can invest in them as well.
Isn't capitalism great? :-)
Those who don't invest in stocks can invest in themselves and learn a more valuable skill or trade. Education makes you more valuable, regardless of outsourcing.
How old are you?
“Those who don’t invest in stocks can invest in themselves and learn a more valuable skill or trade. Education makes you more valuable, regardless of outsourcing.”
Yeah, those losers with Computer Science and Engineering degrees, what were they thinking!!
Yeah, you’ll be ok, but your neighbors and kids are on their own.
Nice.
Not sure if this applies in all cases. My brother-in-law worked in R&D for H-P for over 20 years, a top of the line Ph.D. in EE, and he had his job offshored to Malaysia when Carly Fiorina decided she needed a few more pennies on the bottom line to get a better private jet. Of course, she made up for that by posting a job for stewardess on her private jet. So what was that again about education?