> In the long run, we are better off with free trade. We get the low prices we desire.
"I want my consumer excess, f*ck the middle class"
I prefer higher prices and protectionism. Cheap goods are not a right.
Have to hold capital hostage. That's the way to success for labor, and regulation is the way to do it.
There are no new jobs coming. Its time to drop the charade that retraining and hustling will be the solution.
The types of people who would consider a socialized universal wage are not the types of people you just elected in. So no, protectionists aren't going to do this. They'll just give the spoils to corporations, who they are indebted to to stay in office and who ultimately produce the erroneous talking points you parrot. Trump isn't pulling the Frank-Dodd act or removing environmental regulations for you, your job, your community, or the middle class. He's doing it to please the wealthy elites who will personally benefit. These policies won't "create jobs."
>Failing that, we can replicate it and break the patents for it.
That wont work and then what? This is the path to a command economy that won't work either. You can't just hand-wavey some kind of robotic utopia powered by taxes.
>There are no new jobs coming.
Obama's time in office saw the creation of 15m jobs. We're dying for talent at my employer and constantly hiring. But no, we don't want high school dropouts who think they're entitled to subsidized wages for lazy 'make work' rural jobs. You're not entitled to a job. You have to earn it by being competitive and learning in-demand skills just like everyone else did all through history.
Should the less intelligent live in squalor while the smart get by? I don't think so. There needs to be good job opportunities for all classes, not just the upper class.
If labor wasn't needed for many manufacturing jobs,
then labor wouldn't be used overseas.
I don't think that the "less intelligent" should love in squalor and I want to involve them economically too. I also think Americans Do Not want to live like factory workers in china or India. They want to live like American factory workers in the 60s. That isn't likely anymore for a variety of reasons.
We need job training for the new reality
All protectionism will do is increase wages for engineers, who will be tasked with accelerating the pace of automation. Those shirt factory jobs aren't coming back.
The prices would be higher but the need to replace would be lower.
Unfortunately we're in a downward spiral. Making cheaper products overseas lowers wages. People with lower wages are forced to buy cheap, non-durable products.