September 20, 2011
Marketplace radio had author Don Peck on this morning to tell listeners that middle class jobs are disappearing because of globalization and automation. This is not true.
The reason why factory workers lose their jobs to people in developing countries rather than doctors and lawyers is that we designed trade rules to make our factory workers compete with low-paid workers in China, Mexico and other developing countries. We largely protect our doctors and lawyers from the same sort of competition.
If we had designed our trade policy to put our highly educated professionals in direct competition with their counterparts in the developing world, they would be no more successful than our factory workers. The difference is that professionals have enough political power to mostly preserve the barriers that protect them from such competition.
The over-valued dollar also worsens the situation for U.S. factory workers. If the dollar adjusted to a level that allowed for balanced trade we would have more than 4 million additional jobs in manufacturing.
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