“I would add this: The inability of the lower, uneducated classes to move out of poverty because the stepping stones to a middle class income have been destroyed by exporting manufacturing jobs.”
I agree with you on the loss of economic and social mobility for undereducated, unskilled people. Historically taking on an unskilled job in a manufacturing plant, working hard, and being given training for higher skill jobs was a road to the middle class for millions of disadvantaged young people.
Also add the destruction of many small towns in rural America dependent on a single large or several small manufacturing operations. When the manufacturing is exported, the town’s economy is decimated and town residents become dependent on government social services. Drug addiction and crime follow breaking down the community’s social order. The community tax base erodes as inordinate social costs are added. These are all costs of free trade which the free traders are unwilling to acknowledge.
I wonder, with all the incomprehensible moves the Congress has taken with nothing done to stop Obama’s march to shred the law to pieces with his executive actions and overreach, has this been some Machiavellian strategy?
A quid pro quo?
We let you run loose so long as you negotiate and pass this trade treaty. After all, this has been in the works for six years and longer.
Has the Congress averted their eyes to achieve this one, huge signature treaty?