There's no economic principle that says there's an advantage in export equaling imports between two particular countries. When we go to the grocery store, our imports outweigh our exports by 100%, but we're very happy with that and generally come home with what I want.
This is part of the massive confusion I was talking about. "Fairness" means coercive government interference that will result in very little fairness or freedom. But a society that puts freedom ahead of fairness will have a great deal of both.
Yes, I agree if we are arguing the whole anxiety about trade deficits.
What I am arguing is that China steals our technology, uses free prison labor, doesn’t have to meet the same quality standards as US firms, ect...
Meaning by cheating they have hollowed out US manufacturing. So I argue what we have with China is NOT free trade.