3 ms·

"..pay for excellent retraining, and to pension off the workers who can't be retrained, and/or fund nonprofits to employ them doing something societally valuabl

"..pay for excellent retraining, and to pension off the workers who can't be retrained, and/or fund nonprofits to employ them doing something societally valuable but not profitable." You'll excuse me if I don't find anything obvious about this. We can't even get political consensus in this country that healthcare is a basic human right that everyone should have free and equal access to and you're proposing that a massive program of worker reeducation and pensioning is credibly possible? I parse this as you saying "Free Trade is great if you live in a tiny socialist country with sufficient budgetary reserves to afford continuous retraining of workers and the political will to make that investment in labor force." So...free trade is great for Finland?

wpietri 11y ago
It's obvious in the sense that free trade advocates regularly say this should be part of what happens. And actually, it's what happens in the US. It's a pretty common thing to go along with trade bills. [1] It happened again as recently as June. [2] I think we can agree that there should be more, and that we should do more for all sorts of workers, not just those affected by changes brought on by particular trade bills. In which case, it sounds like your problem isn't with free trade, it's with the US's generally poor treatment of workers. I'd agree with that, but I think more trade helps the situation in that it benefits consumers, and people are more willing to be generous when they feel richer. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Adjustment_Assistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Adjustment_Assistance [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/24/pelosi-switches-to-yes-on-trade-adjustment-assistance-worker-aid-bill/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/24/p...

3 ms·

"..pay for excellent retraining, and to pension off the workers who can't be retrained, and/or fund nonprofits to employ them doing something societally valuabl

by knieveltech 11y ago

wpietri 11y ago
It's obvious in the sense that free trade advocates regularly say this should be part of what happens. And actually, it's what happens in the US. It's a pretty common thing to go along with trade bills. [1] It happened again as recently as June. [2] I think we can agree that there should be more, and that we should do more for all sorts of workers, not just those affected by changes brought on by particular trade bills. In which case, it sounds like your problem isn't with free trade, it's with the US's generally poor treatment of workers. I'd agree with that, but I think more trade helps the situation in that it benefits consumers, and people are more willing to be generous when they feel richer. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Adjustment_Assistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Adjustment_Assistance [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/24/pelosi-switches-to-yes-on-trade-adjustment-assistance-worker-aid-bill/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/24/p...