This is where things get interesting.
Let me just say that we're too free with trade, much too free, and it will end up hurting us rather badly in the long run. No if's and's or but's about it.
And the reason it hurts us is because of another point you mentioned: governement regulation. I remember a GM exec stating that the cost of abiding the various government regulation adds about $2500 to a car. But of course this is the case for foreign car manufacturers as well, if they want to sell cars in the USA. So if someone want to make cars for the US market, the CAR must meet all of our governement regulations. Hence, we have a farily level playing field for the automotive industry, but one in which Ford and GM still can't compete. (Mainly due to poor quality products)
But what about something else, say a toy? Even toys have to meet certain regulations and standards in the USA. But if the toy can be made for less money overseas than it can be here...then why make it here? So toy production goes overseas. The TOY itself has to meet USA government regulations, but the factory it's made in, and the way it treats it workers are beyond the reach of the regulators.
So it's just not the toy that comes under government regulations, but the factory, the workers, and everything else. So if a company can avoid all those costs by locating production overseas, then why make something here?
Of course it's not just a problem of manufacturing anymore. Not only can products be made more cheaply overseas, they can also be designed and engineered more cheaply overseas. And the information processing necessary to oversee everything can be done more efficeintly overseas. Pretty soon, you just have an owner, a lawyer, an accountant, and someone who drives the forklift at the warhouse on the American side, as everything else can be done more cheaply overseas.
Of course the problem with this is that we can't all be in the import/export business, nor can we all work for the government. So where does everyone else get a job? Restaurants? Wal-Mart? A trucking company or a railroad? Wall Street? Just how many massage therapists can an economy support?
This wouldn't be so bad if there were something other than manufacturing, engineering, information technology, etc., to sustain the middle-class. But such is not the case. Jobs for the middle-class are disappearing quickly, and there's nothing else out there taking up the slack.
So just how long can this scenario go on for? How long can the middle class take a hit before the economy as a whole goes into the tank?
If history is any guide, we don't have very long at all. As wages are stagnant or declining for a majority of Americans as prices continue to increase...even at a low rate of inflation....consumption of goods will decrease, no matter where they are made or how cheap they are.
That's the situation we are in now. Free trade is only making it worse.
Hmmm....then why are you taking the side of A. Pole who seems to think we need more government regulation instead of taking the side of someone who wants less regulation, like me?
Jobs for the middle-class are disappearing quickly, and there's nothing else out there taking up the slack.
Anything other than your word that this is happening?
As wages are stagnant or declining for a majority of Americans
Anything other than your word that this is happening?