'Made In America' Policies Hugely Popular, Survey Shows. Free traders, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW???

[Zalatix]

51. It is a US Chamber of Commerce argument because it is a half-truth at best.

1) You ignore the fact that people out of work cannot afford a $5 Chinese-made shirt.

2) You also ignore the fact that putting Americans out of work to make shirts in China means we have to pay out for unemployment benefits and then welfare. People who lose their jobs to outsourcing, do not get better jobs. They rarely find work, and when they do, it pays less, but their cost of living goes up.

3) You ignore the fact that offshoring American jobs contributes directly to our trade deficit, which is by far the BIGGEST in the world, without factoring in imported oil. This directly contributes to the devaluation of the US dollar, and the increase of our national debt. The devaluation of the dollar makes imports more expensive. Thus, bringing about the very scenario you claim to be afraid of.

4) Finally, in order to keep $5 shirts from becoming $8 shirts, we have to keep foreign wages down. This is the one that no free trader has an answer for. You'd be the first to address this, if you could. Historical case in point: Haiti's Government recently proposed a major increase in minimum wages. The United States stepped in, because such an increase would mean Haitian-made textiles would become more expensive for Americans. In other words, your dreaded $5 shirts becoming $8 shirts. The United States fought the increase in the Haitian minimum wage in order to keep their wages down and keep their people poor so that selfish Americans could keep their shirts at $5. You wouldn't happen to be one of those selfish Americans... would you?