The traditional response from free traders has been that if we take care of tax rates here and reduce regulation, everything will be all right. Well, I can’t conceive of any possible tax cuts (within reason at all) or any degree of deregulation that would change a $2 an hour job in China into a $25 an hour job in America which is pretty much the minimum to live a middle class lifestyle today. Now, am I off? Am I being fair to the free trade advocates?Labor is a small part of the price of a unit of production. Taxes and regulation dominate. If a business is paying a lot more for corporate taxes and regulation to produce in America, then some may be willing to go abroad even though the quality of the workforce is less. The reason we have higher wages is because we're better.