By Daniel Griswold, Los Angeles Times
This Op-Ed article was published by the Los Angeles Times on August 1, 2016. To visit the article in the L.A. Times click on the link below:
See also “The Technology Imperative: What Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Really Means in the 21st Century”, By John Psarouthakis, Gavdos Press, 2012
Foreign trade took a beating at both major party conventions, with speakers blaming free-trade agreements for all but wiping out U.S. manufacturing and eliminating millions of middle-class jobs. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have promised to renegotiate or abandon trade agreements with key U.S. trading partners such as Mexico and Canada. That would be a colossal mistake.
The number of manufacturing jobs in the United States has indeed been in a long decline since the late 1970s, but that disguises the true story of American manufacturing. Nostalgia for a bygone era blinds politicians and voters alike to the reality of a revitalized sector of the American economy that is thriving in a global market.