3 ms·

Global wage equilibrium would be horrible for western labor.

• api 6y ago
  ... for a while, but then theoretically there would be a massive amount of economic growth. Of course that only works if people all do the free trade thing. US/China broke down because the US was globalist and China was nationalist and protectionist.
• aeternum 6y ago
  That's not clear from a historic point of view. In general the more participatory the economy, the faster quality of life improves overall. While wages may drop for the west, that should be more than offset by the rate at which goods and services become cheaper and more plentiful. Protectionists often look at only one side of the equation.
  • addicted 6y ago
    Except the US already has basically free movement of goods and services. So people are already reaping the benefits of cheaper and plentiful goods and services. The last 2 years have begun to show the massive benefits of this. The US tariffs have led to a situation where today the US has the largest net trade deficit since 2006 and is paying subsidies of over $40bn simply to keep farming afloat in the Midwest. And there has been no gain in jobs within the US or any benefit whatsoever to those tariffs. The US consumer is only paying a lot more for products they were paying a lot less for a couple of years earlier making everyone here functionally poorer.
    • aeternum 6y ago
      I generally agree that free trade is the way to go and we are reaping the benefits. In the context of free-trade however: How would you handle the intellectual property issue, can you still have free trade with a state that does not treat IP in the same way?
• jdhn 6y ago
  Would be? Look at the manufacturing sector in the US since outsourcing started. It's an absolute shadow of its former self in terms of people employed and salaries.