You Can't Cherry Pick Benefits of Global Trade

I saw a politcal commercial the other day bemoaning the loss of jobs in the United States. The message was basically that there are factory workers who have loyally worked for 30 years in a plant only to have it shut down, the work moved to China leaving the employee apparently penniless and lacking for all but but the most bare essentials of life. Not that facts are ever relevant in a political campaign, but how can we have penniless factory workers sitting around after their work was moved over seas when the United States has essentially been at full employment for the past 6 years and aliens are streaming over the boarder to do work that "Americans won't do". Well, if I were a penniless, unemployed factory worker with 30 years of experience wokring in a plant, there would be darned few jobs "I wouldn't do" in order to support myself. The net of the political message is anti-globaization and protectionism for American factory jobs.

The problem is, we can't have it both ways. We cannot cherry pick the benefits of global trade without the associated "costs". The United States has benefited greatly from global trade. Our standard of living is higher as we have far better and cheaper products that support our business and daily lives. We import goods that are far more price effective than if those goods were made in the US. We want the least expensive, highest quality products we can get as consumers. The cost of benefit is that labor needs to come from its most efficient and most cost effective source. As the market stands today, for low to moderate skill line-manufacturing, the best place to get that labor is not on American soil. That doesn't mean that there are no jobs in the US, jobs are plentiful...and benefits that go with them.

So which is it, do we want the most cost effective products and the most robust economy or do we want to keep jobs that belong over seas in the United States and pay the price at the cash register everytime we shop& Do we want to pay the price in the growth of our overall economy? We cannot have it both ways, we cannot cherry pick the benefits we want in the global economy. If you want to pay $ 2,000 for a laptop instead of $ 600, then let's keep those manufacturing jobs on US soil. Think long and hard before you answer, because the actions, those implied in the political ad, will have dramtic consequences on your life and mine. Think about it before you decide who to support this November.