Free Trade: Income Redistribution

Dean Baker makes an excellent point:

But the current trade policy is far from free trade, it is simply one-sided protectionism that is designed to redistribute income from less educated workers to more educated workers. Calling it “free trade” gives a policy designed to redistribute income upward a legitimacy it does not deserve.

Of course, not all workers have access to higher education or the means or the ability to pursue it. (Even if we could offer free or cheap, universal higher education, the great majority of people may not have the ability to pursue it. But of course, we are light years from that ideal.)

When you hear professionals offer “better education” as the answer, know that they are fat and happy, being well-served by the current arrangement.

Furthermore, they have really little interest in the poor slobs below.

It is like holding food out to a starving man:, telling him he has to walk one hundred yards to get it, even if he has two broken legs.