It would be cheap to say that Democrats are a threat to free trade, on account of the fact that sentiment for protection has been steadily building among Republicans as well. In fact it's getting harder and harder to find anyone who doesn't think foreigners are stealing our jobs. Lou Dobbs, who is mad as Hell and not taking it any more, is making a fortune with this argument. The only thing wrong with it, as far as I can see, is that it is obviously false.
You can see that simply by reflecting that the animous against free trade is nearly universal among trade unions and indigenous people's organizations around the world. Globalization can't be stealing everyone's jobs, can it? Or else where are the jobs going? Mars?
Economist Robert Samuelson (Real Clear Politics) makes these points:
We may be about to shoot ourselves in the foot -- or maybe the chest -- on trade. In the name of "fair trade,'' we may punish our own exporters. In 2005, worldwide exports exceeded $10 trillion. Since 1980, they've more than tripled while the overall global economy doubled. Like it or not, massive international flows of goods and services (aka "globalization'') underpin all modern economies. . . .
American trade deficits haven't destroyed U.S. job creation by sending work abroad. Consider. From 1980 to 2006, the trade deficit jumped from $19 billion to an estimated $786 billion, or from less than 1 percent of gross domestic product to about 6 percent. Still, employment in the same period rose from 99 million to 145 million. Job creation defies the trade deficits, whose causes lie largely beyond our control and have little to do with "unfair'' trade practices.
I think it unlikely that the next Congress or any other will move to put new and serious restrictions on trade. Far too many Americans are dependent on export-related jobs, and the damages of a real trade war between nations would be immediately apparent. On the other hand, progress toward freer trade is likely to crawl to a stop. Unlike the American economy or the Indian economy, the world economy has no in-group bias to defend it. There is no interplanetary Lou Dobbs to defend Earth jobs against those low wage Martians.
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