I read the comments Obama made about Free Trade last Sunday. And while I agree with them in theory, unfortunately, there is no such thing as "Free Trade".
There are always strings attached. Sometimes, they are very clear -- China, for example, has the currency manipulation issue. This is pretty cut-and-dry; by manipulating their currency, China keeps their exports competitive and probably costs everybody else lots and lots of jobs.
But other costs are truly hidden. Take, for example, the environment. In the US, if you produce toxic chemicals, guess what? You have to dispose of them properly and safely. In other countries, you dump them wherever. By saving a dollar in waste disposal costs, we get to buy some goods slightly cheaper at a cost of destroying the planet. Or, more likely, by pushing the cost of cleaning up the toxic mess to our children, or our grandchildren, ... Again, this costs us jobs only this also destroys our planet.
I remember the Wall*Mart advertisements talking about "no matter where you shop, Wall*Mart saves you $3,000 a year!" -- or something like that... How about this? "We save you $3,000 but your grandkids will be paying that back 10x over!" That's probably more apt.
What is truly frightening is that this "Free Trade" begets more "Free Trade". The United States can no longer manufacturer most of what it consumes. Thus, we now need free trade to survive. Think of it this way -- when you buy an iPhone, it came from China. Your shirt came from the far east. My Levis came from Egypt. My computer came from Taiwan. The mouse from Vietnam. In fact, looking around my desk, only the paper things were probably "Made in America" -- assuming I count Canada as part of America, that is... We need this free trade to survive.
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