[wolfcreek]

“has done so much to spread prosperity.”

It’s made a bunch of the WRONG people/countries wealthy also. (mostly enemies of the US)

[kms61]

thirty years ago cotton shirts and trousers were not THAT expensive. Free trade as been a very mixed blessing at best. Yes, there have been some benefits. There have also been some tremendous social and economic dislocations. The WSJ and its ilk would be more credible on free trade if they were at least completely honest about its impact.

[kms61]

Trade with China costs 2.3 million American jobs.
http://www.suntimes.com/business/currency/1083633,CST-FIN-wallet31.article

[Roses0508]

Thirty years ago something as simple as cotton shirts and trousers were expensive; now they're cheap.

I remember driving through the South on vacation and stopping at all the textile outlets to buy my school wardrobe....for very little money. The stuff was well made and cheap, made in textile factories in the US.

[monday]

the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act which raised import tariffs and caused massive retaliatory trade restricitons to be passed against US exports, basically caused the great depression. If our politicians are too stupid to learn from the past, we will have a repeat of the great depression less than a hundred years after the first.

Because I know politicians are stupid, I have little hope.

[CowboyJay]

‘Free Trade’ is a misnomer and/or myth. There is always regulation on both sides. Ask nearly any US manufacturer that’s tried to open an export market into China.