Brexit

[Jumpin]

DarthMetalliCube said:

Jumpin said:
I find it a little hilarious that the US has an anti-free trade movement because they think it's bad for THEIR economy. You couldn't be more backwards.

Well that hilarity is misguided. Free trade has utterly decimated our Midwestern economy and has largely contributed to many of the cities in these areas taking on the look of Iraq or other war-torn third world countries. Industry jobs have largely been shipped overseas as a result of free trade agreements. This redirection of jobs saves these large corporations money but it negatively affects many of the working class (particularly those of color). It's called the "RUST belt" for a reason. 

But manufacturing output has risen fairly regularly in the US. It had a drop off (with a lot of other places) at the time of the ~2008 economic collapse, but it's been growing since then.

Free trade has significantly benefitted the US economy, as it's largely US corporations that exploit third world economies. American corporations often backed with the military, which has pushed countries to have certain policies. If the US isn't properly spending this money to benefit the people of its country, that's an issue with neoliberalism and the significant weakening of the tax foundation in the US, and as a result of the social programs, they funded as established by the US New Deal government. The destruction of the labour movement has also significantly hurt the working class. But even still, fixing the labour movement won't be beneficial for the US economy going forward as technology (automation and AI) is changing things rapidly.

I am not defending free trade. On the contrary, I am heavily in favour of trade unions that will block corporations from abusing their power or dealing with other business entities that do. What I am saying is the US has benefitted tremendously from free trade. Without it, it's not as though the areas doing poorly would be doing any better if the economic management is still poor. After all, the US manufacturing output is still growing in volume, as is the GDP. The problem with neo-liberal governments are not that economies don't work, it's that they tend to work for specific classes and not others. This holds true for both free trade and non-free trade.