Free Trade- just what can we live without?

[Corporate666]

101. Well

I believe the fear about the future is vastly overstated and completely unfounded.

We have undergone many many revolutions. Back in the day, pretty much everyone had to farm to get enough food to live. The people that didn't farm supported the farming industry (like blacksmiths, coopers, etc). As our economy grew, others jobs popped into existence that never existed before... journalists, coach builders, tailors, cobblers, etc. Those jobs existed because the efficiency gained from advances in farming let one person create enough food for two people - allowing the second person to do something else and pay the first person to produce the food.

Think of all the people who build stage coaches, repaired them, drove them, maintained them. All that is gone. Think about all the people that built railways, trains, telegraphs - just about all of them are gone. Actually, the vast majority of jobs that existed 100 years ago are gone. But today we have computer programmers, dentists, car repair techs, dog groomers, HVAC techs, electricians, psychologists, financiers, brain surgeons and dozens of other jobs that didn't exist before. What happened is we basically found a way to more efficiently do the low end jobs and we increased employment on the high end.

The prosperity of the USA exists because we create value (create industries, jobs, companies, etc). That creates wealth, and we use that wealth to have other people do the stuff we don't want to do - just like when we outsourced farming to other people to free some of our people up to become journalists.

People worry about automation. I don't at all. I design and manufacture a lot of automation products. Automation increases efficiency and helps us move up-market. So it's true we won't really need as many people flipping burgers, or stocking shelves at Walmart, or driving taxis... but new jobs will be created as they have always been. We've transitioned through many revolutions and never had millions of people sitting around with nothing to do - it won't happen this time either. The most important thing is that we keep innovating, keep educating, keep developing.

People don't want to hear it - but that includes growing our industry as well as keeping people educated. If you do the latter without the former, we're screwed. I disagree with you that people will go to europe for an education. There are many state schools in the USA that cost $2,500 or less per year (such as the Univ of New Mexico, Univ or Arkansas, etc). The expensive American schools are leagues ahead of European schools - which aren't free - they mostly have tuition costs, and you always have to pay room/board. It's always cheaper to go to school in the USA... just not to go to a top-shelf school.

America will be just fine - so long as we don't turn off the tap of innovation. There is an energy revolution coming and we are leading it - and will continue to do so if we're smart (nuclear power is good. Electric cars are good. Battery manufacturing plants are good). We've been leading the high-tech revolution for decades and that shows no sign of slowing up. It's critical that we court emerging industries and make sure they happen here. So whatever the next big things are after IT/internet, medical, energy - we need to make sure they come here, or are started here.

That's one of the biggest reasons why it is such a dangerous game to go after business or to implement protectionist trade deals. It really has the potential to ruin our economy - luckily most politicians are smart enough to get that (I think, I hope), and business is powerful enough not to let anyone stand in their way too much.