Globalization explained

If you lost a manufacturing job and now find yourself greeting at Walmart, you have my sympathy.

Your loss was largely blamed on trade agreements, which have never been clearly explained. Globalization was intended to allow businesses to reduce costs and lower prices. Business has been very good at reducing labor costs, mainly through automation and offshoring. We can debate whether price reductions or profit increases resulted. I am willing to believe the net effect is positive. But that means nothing if you lost a job.

The price of everything will go up if those jobs come back. Everyone will pay more. This bit of socialism doesn’t bother me, capitalists will continue to seek ways to reduce costs. It’s what they do.

Unfortunately, your job was part of an economic inefficiency and is unsustainable in our current economic system.

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Globalization explained."