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Re:Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics? by oldmanjay on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @05:18PM (#11584655)
Well the fact that the global population has begun the climb out of poverty is a pretttttttty good indicator. You may be approaching from the protectionist side, of course, but I'm not and so the happy truth is plain to see.
Re:Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics? by ffnewfkjewf on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @05:22PM (#11584680)
That's a result of technology, not trade policy. Not only that, but I can't think of rising, developing countries that have free trade policies. Brazil, China, and the rest are all protectionist. Further, the the notion is that we in the US have benefited from free trade.

So the answer is none of the above.

Re:Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics? by astronautjones on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @05:28PM (#11584706)
I agree with you, but would dispute that Brasil is rising at the moment
Re:Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics? by jqm on Wednesday April 27, 2016 @05:27PM (#11584703)
Well to be fair "the whole" isn't fully visible yet so we don't actually know the plain truth. Maybe trade deals are better for everyone overall. Maybe they aren't.

Maybe they have sustainably and permanently lifted millions of people out of poverty and it's a long term step forward on the path to a better life for everyone. Or maybe they have served to increasingly concentrate capital into fewer and fewer hands to the point the entire world will be eventually perpetually enslaved with no path out and this causes very bad things for the human race to happen. Not to mention the destruction of culture (or is this a positive? I never know) and destruction of ecosystems (I'm pretty sure this isn't a positive).

The point is, we don't know the full story yet. The jury is still out. But I'm always wary of concentrated power. Distributed power seems to produce much more good IMOP.