Some things need to change. But increasing trade was not the problem, and restricting it is not the solution.
Many Americans are fed up with experts, and I am right there with them. I get the desire to burn it all down, I really do — except when it comes to the subject I am expert in: economics.
Specifically, there is a growing consensus that economists are wrong about free trade, which we almost universally support but which has made life worse for many US workers. This disconnect weighs on me. Could I be as out-of-touch and mistaken as the experts I too am starting to doubt?
True, almost every economic metric suggests that things are improving for most Americans. But pointing that out is like lecturing people that crime overall is down when they complain that everything in the convenience store is locked up. Even if the data show some improvement, there are many millions just getting by. Costs for housing, health care and insurance are crushing. Some communities have lost jobs that aren’t coming back. It remains difficult to get a toehold in the economy. Inflation remains a risk. Technological change has made people’s lives and livelihoods all the more uncertain.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg Opinion (paywall)
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Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images