Trump denounces Clinton as wrong. Clinton denounces Trump as wrong. Unfortunately for us, both are wrong on a vital issue: trade.
Now candor requires the admission that free trade produces dislocation and hardship for some of our fellow citizens. As one economist said, "Everybody gets a discount, but you lose your job." A compassionate ?people must invest in dislocated fellow workers so that either their jobs are not threatened in the first place, or they can transition to other jobs smoothly.
Economists contend that, after all adjustments are made, free trade leaves everyone better off. But the term "all adjustments" can seem solely a synonym for wrecked lives. Free traders must anticipate and address the consequences of free trade.
But in addition to compassion, complete candor is required. What Trump and Clinton advocate is called "protectionism." Digest that word. We would all pay more to subsidize the jobs of a relatively few. Who will subsidize us while we subsidize them?
Free trade involves purchasing goods and services from the most efficient producers. It rewards efficiency and conserves income for other uses.
Compassionately implemented, free trade? should benefit Americans. It would promote also innovation in the American economy that would, in turn, maintain our leadership of the international economy. We can neither turn back the clock nor turn our backs on the global economy.
I'm Bob Evans, and that is my perspective.
