[dgbrown]

Back when I was young the whole free trade thing made sense to me. Now I see decimated manufacturing towns where people are either junkies or unemployed long term, most of. Many of these people are unskilled and uneducated. They used to run a broom or shovel but won’t because the immigrants have kept the wages too low. What never transpired is the growth of other economies that were suppose to buy our goods.

Guess what people? I am college educated and in my industry I am seeing people not too far from my level being outsourced. Do not assume you are invaluable. Bean counters will sell you out in a heart beat.

[Enchante]

"America has a bilateral trade deficit in goods with the EU—$147 billion in 2016—but a services surplus of $55 billion."

So the net trade deficit with the EU is around $100 billion, and $800 billion with China. POTUS Trump is right that many other countries have been taking a free ride on our people and economy. They make it difficult or expensive for our companies to sell there (many countries). It is long past time to truly level the trade playing fields.

[roadcat]

Back when I was young the whole free trade thing made sense to me.

The "experts" were telling us it's a good thing, and we will all have nice clean "service industry" jobs instead of dirty manufacturing jobs. They sold it to Americans, and we believed them. Now we have no manufacturing, and the service jobs are being grabbed by illegals or outsourced (call centers in India etc.).