Except the vast majority of the consumer benefits of trade, referenced here, accrue to America's poor and middle class, not the "elites."
Meanwhile, subsequent research has shown significant benefits for US manufacturing from the "China shock", eg,
and
and
/2
and
and
/2
Then there is the research showing that the rise of Chinese trade competitiveness was due less to US govt/elite action (eg PNTR) than to China's *own liberalization* /3
And, of course, there is the fact that trade and globalization is about a lot more than just China. @veroderugy, for example, just summarized the economic benefits of NAFTA: /4
Or this @PIIE piece on the overall benefits of globalization for Americans and the economy: /5
And, finally, there's the vast body of research on how the only alternative to that "elitist" free trade - protectionism - is a debacle for jobs, wages, output, inequality, etc. For example, this new one: /6
And, of course, my work on American protectionism from 2017, which became eerily prescient in 2018: /7
Finally, it's also a myth - a bizarre one, given our history - that *free traders* are the elite, well-connected cronies who are corrupting US politics. My paper detailed the history, & here's a timely addition: /8
(I'd also recommend the pts in this @DavidAFrench thread on some other problems with the "blame trade" narrative: )
/9
/9
Disruptions from trade/tech/culture are certainly real & worthy of concern. But this resurgent idea on the right that free trade is a corrupt, elitist policy that destroyed the US middle class (& the implication of a better alternative) is wrong & distracts from real solutions /x
