> if it quit trading with the world tomorrow American employment would go up. You trade with the world because it makes stuff cheaper. Without trading you woul

> if it quit trading with the world tomorrow American employment would go up. You trade with the world because it makes stuff cheaper. Without trading you would produce that stuff less efficiently, so prices would go up relative to salaries, so people would need to reduce consumption, not only of the stuf that was imported, but of everything. Whether the end result would be increase or decrease in employement isn't obvious, but I think decrease in employement is more probable.