“We Are Already Living in a Free Trade World”
It is true that a globalized economy has hurt American workers. That’s because this country no longer has a monopoly on being the broker of the world’s goods and services as we did at the end of WWII. Liberals are right to point to the development of the labor movement as a factor in the rise of this country’s middle class. But we also have to acknowledge that happened at a time when a world war (combined with the debilitating effects of colonialism) meant that we had very little by way of competition. All that was bound to change…eventually. Liberal arguments wrapped up in trying to recreate the past on this one can wind up sounding an awful lot like conservative arguments against opening diplomatic ties with Cuba. It’s time to move on.
Ultimately the question isn’t whether or not we can stop these changes from happening. It is rather, how do we lift up American workers in light of them? President Obama suggests that keeping foreign markets open to our goods and services will help. But I think he would admit that an agreement like TPP will only do that marginally. Domestic solutions that have to do with raising the minimum wage, free community college, investments in infrastructure, etc. are where the real action is on that issue.
More: “We Are Already Living in a Free Trade World” by Nancy LeTourneau