While it is important to recognize the damage caused by trade deals of the last three decades, it is also essential to recognize that these were not “free trade” deals even though this is what their proponents like to claim.
The point here is not that 4.1 percent of the labor force is unemployed, but rather that workers no longer feel good about their job prospects and are therefore reluctant to quit their current jobs.
It is a gross misrepresentation to say that the government policy in this period was just leaving things to the market, it was a deliberate policy of upward redistribution.
