In Defense Of Cheap Asian Labor. Part I

Were it not for cheap Asian labor you probably would not own a cell phone. If an Iphone were manufactured in the US it would probably retail at about $2K/unit. At that price, few people would own phones and we would probably not hit the critical mass needed to construct coast to coast networks. The Trumps can bitch and moan all they want but without China, we would all be poorer.

Blue jeans, flatware, microwave ovens to name but a few items are now cheaper in absolute dollars (and a fraction of the price in real dollars) than they were in 1970. We can credit Moore's Law for computational deflation but textiles, hardware, kitchen goods and just about everything else? Thank a Chinese peasant whose standard of living has tripled since 2001.

Americans are protected from a shrinking dollar and Asians triple their income in a decade in half. Sounds like a win-win situation doesn't it? It does unless you are a demagogue or con artist or political opportunist, in which case you will employ selective statistics, selective narratives, half-truths and even falsehoods to cultivate phantom grievances. 

Free trade is good but unfortunately it is not fluffy. Thus, free trade will never be embraced by fluffy minds.