[ConservativeMind]

It’s not “free trade” that is the issue in any form.

It is the huge costs government and unions have added to employing Americans.

Get freaking real.

[hellbender]

I think that's a gross oversimplification. Americans simply cannot work as cheaply as Mexicans, let alone Chinese. I agree with Henry Ford's statement that wealth is created only by manufacturing/building things, growing things on the soil, or digging things out of the earth. Lawyers, psychologists, surplus academics who teach "social science" and "political science," and Wall St. speculators do not create wealth.

What happened to Detroit is now happening to the whole country: lavish retirement plans and health coverage for the retired (entitlements like SS and Medicare) are sapping economic growth.

[DuncanWaring]

It’s not “free trade” that is the issue in any form. It is the huge costs government and unions have added to employing Americans.

Henry Ford paid his factory workers $5/day to build Model Ts, which was probably their total compensation - no vacation, sick days, health-care, FICA, UE, etc.

That $5 would buy a quarter-ounce of gold.

Today, that same quarter-ounce of gold would be, looking at the average price over the last few years, $250-$300, "or so".

Union/government mandates have put the actual costs of keeping a worker on the payroll at twice that.

So, if you back-out the union/government costs, the comparable worker could reasonably expect to be paid $250-300.

How is someone who gets paid $250 a day supposed to compete with a Chinese worker who gets paid $250 a month?