MEMORIZE these economic facts! (updated with profits, wages, & defense spending)

[CabCurious]

36. Agreed on all points, but...

I'm just not sure free trade per se is inherently a problem.

I believe that we can have win-win free trade with other nations that aren't as wealthy as us, even if it means short-term risk in terms of job growth. The same insight Ford had about his own workers applies to growing a middle class here. And I think it goes for the whole planet, too. The problem thus isn't the trading, it's the "free" part. When we're making such arrangements where there are no labor standards, no long-term growth of a middle class, living wage, education, women's rights, etc... then it's definitely not win-win. But for every case where I think jobs have shifted from the USA to a foreign manufacturer, I'd still say that it's still a CEOs values decision.

Rarely is it black/white that an American company MUST go out of business if it won't out-source or off-shore labor.

And perhaps sometimes it would be better if the company just went out of business...