1. The automation debate is a good reason the left and center left should read @Chris_arnade's Dignity and @JenSilva422's We're Still Here. Both authors just tell readers what working class people say. And they say, almost always, that things got worse when the factory moved.
@Chris_arnade @JenSilva422 2. The whole 'show me data' brigade is problematic for two reasons. One, data is easily manipulated. Two and more importantly, there's only data about what happened *after a process is complete.* China shock data only showed up after the China shock!
@Chris_arnade @JenSilva422 3. Large numbers of working people protested NAFTA, the WTO formation, and WTO negotiations in Seattle. They knew what was happening to them and they said it then and there. Elite technocrats refused to listen. Fifteen years later some of them are like 'well now we have data.'
@Chris_arnade @JenSilva422 4. It's just very common in D.C. think tanks for technocrats to say, ten years after the fact, that no one knew what was happening when what they mean is no one knew except the millions of powerless people who were badly affected and those who listened to them.
@Chris_arnade @JenSilva422 5. Americans think too much these days is made in China. You know why? Because it is. When economists say 'well actually manufacturing here is just more productive' it's not a surprise that a few years later other economists find the first group made serious errors.
@Chris_arnade @JenSilva422 6. During the financial bubble in 2002 normal people would say 'this house has ten bids and has been on the market for 12 hours we're in a bubble' while technocrats said housing prices always go up. Corrupted expertise is a silencing tool.
@Chris_arnade @JenSilva422 7. It's a good thing technocrats and wonks (including me!) realize that our trading patterns were destructive now. It's also bad that a good chunk of the establishment is lying about automation so they don't have to admit it. But we need to move away from technocracy, period.
