The same logic works for all Protectionist legislation. Yet free trade has lowered the costs of nearly every good in our lives.

Free trade maximizes GDP at the cost of further wealth inequality within the closed system of a nation.

There's a tipping point coming fairly soon where voters will logically prefer the short term benefits of protectionism vs additional inequality.

If capitalists want to continue down the path of free trade, they better be prepared to redistribute the additional wealth generated. That or find a way to disenfranchise a whole lot of pissed off citizens.

No it hasn't really.

Technological development has lowered the costs and availability of most things in our lives. If you look at the actual practices of governments and individuals over the last few centuries you won't find much truly free trade. You'll find all kinds of protectionism, exploits of positional control over markets, currency flows (I'm looking at you China), and the occasional super-power deciding to to have a war on ... well slavery was the one that mostly worked.

But free trade? Well, most countries agree that they should be allowed to freely export whatever they want... imports are another matter of course.