The problem was that the people that benefitted most from free trade never do the work to ensure that a fair share of the profits went to the working class who were now being displaced. If you can no longer get lifelong middleclass job with a high school diploma, but you need a degree, then the degree should be paid for by the state... or you see what you see, a race to the bottom and then a backlash.
Tariffs unlikely would benefit working class either. Benefits likely will be captured mostly by business owners (in protected by tariffs sectors) while everyone will get higher prices (which will hit peoples with low income the most). Manufacturing is more automated nowadays (than it was in the post WW2 era) so it will bring a small number of jobs (copare to the US population) and many of them will require a degree (or certfication).
The greatest number of people benefiting from free trade in this instance have been Chinese. Within America, the beneficiaries seem to have been farmers - China is a major US export market as well as an import market, people keep forgetting these things have two sides.
There are plenty of worker owned businesses. If this leads to more worker prosperity then the free market should push workers into them and to form them. They are free to do so, so what gives?
Sure but if worker own businesses generate more profit for workers then the workers can use that wealth to buy, I mean lobby and later employ, officials just like other businesses no? I don't see why they cant do all the same corrupt regulatory capture stuff.
This seems circular, since there are no credible authorities to decide what is “a fair share” or not, other than the political process in the first place.
(And then only in the ideal perfectly spherical cow world where single issue voters don’t exist…)
I think fair can be refined to a middle class lifestyle where after working for 30 years you can have your house paid odd and enjoy the final third of your life in retirement having healthcare coverage the whole time.
While nailing down all the particulars can be daunting I think the basic sketch as above is what people mean most of the time pretty uncontroversially.
