O, the cosmolib?

The free trade trade-off

Now, more than 20 years after NAFTA and 14 years after China joined the World Trade Organization, there is no real question among economists that expanding trade has been good for the world and has helped reduce poverty. 

It has also unquestionably been good for U.S. corporations as they grow their global reach. 

But there is equally no doubt that trade liberalization has hurt low-skill manufacturing workers and aggravated income inequality, which is now at its worst since the 1920s.

Good for foreigners and very rich Americans at the expense of most other Americans, and especially of the most vulnerable, least well-off, and least powerful Americans.

DM proposes some pathetic cushions including the usual "re-training" bullshit for another treaty that will dry up employment opportunities for the low-skilled, ignorant, untrained, stupid, and lazy who will always be among us and who cannot, by any means, be turned into high-skilled, educated, trained, smart, and enterprising folks who will then be able to compete for and drive down wages for higher-end jobs that don't exist, anyway.