>> I'm guessing a fair part of the population here on HN is too young to remember the Japanese takeover of the US market in the 70s and 80s
I'm old enough to remember that, and from what I recall, the objections of people I knew to buying Japanese cars were not that they were junk, they were that in some of the places I lived growing up, working at an automobile assembly plant was the best occupational outcome that a large part of the population could realistically aspire to. If those jobs disappear, then what?
That was back when the Democrats were against free trade. That all changed, their argument being that trade would make us, in aggregate, better off, and if certain parts of the population were harmed by free trade, we could use the gains of the people that benefited from trade to compensate those who were harmed.
That all happened except for the compensate those who were harmed part.
I'm old enough to remember that, and from what I recall, the objections of people I knew to buying Japanese cars were not that they were junk, they were that in some of the places I lived growing up, working at an automobile assembly plant was the best occupational outcome that a large part of the population could realistically aspire to. If those jobs disappear, then what?
That was back when the Democrats were against free trade. That all changed, their argument being that trade would make us, in aggregate, better off, and if certain parts of the population were harmed by free trade, we could use the gains of the people that benefited from trade to compensate those who were harmed.
That all happened except for the compensate those who were harmed part.
Yes, I remember.