Insofar as trump repeats the same tropes, he's being quite leftwing. Protectionism and mercantilism are typically leftwing positions as they are contrary to free markets.
> before it began investing on building one.
That is my point. Americans chose not to do that. A loss of manufacturing didnt "happen to america" like some crime. American society chose to be educated differently, chose to spend and raise taxes differently, and presently, continues to choose to do so.
The "blame china and outsourcing" narrative is just misdirected scape-goating. Trump's repetition of it is a pretty strong signal of its mumbo-jumbo narcissim.
China has invested in its infrastructure to an incomparable degree. The US has not, does not, and will not. It is your fault.
I don't think Trump is repeating the same tropes because he is leftwing. He just straight-out clueless, and finds a target, any target, for his attacks. China is a great target, whether the attack is right or not, it doesn't matter to him, as long as his supporters lap it up.
The left? That's just reality, not a left/right thing. I think it's now common sense in both the left and right. Heck, Trump (which one would call right) admitted more or less the same (that globalization lost America jobs and sending things to China was a bad idea).
>"Corporations" are profit-seeking for the entire lifetime; there isn't a point where the making-money comes to the fore and ruins everything.
That corporations are profit-seeking for the entire lifetime is neither here, nor there. You can be profit seeking and selling good products and fostering a healthy community, or you can be profit-seeking and fucking customers and polluting and so on.
So, there might not be a "a point where the making-money comes to the fore and ruins everything" but there's absolutely a case that how a corporation goes about making-money can ruin everything.
Which also means there a point in time, where corporations were let (culturally, legally, etc) to run wild with money-making to the detriment of other things (society, externalities, etc).
>America is a massive country with low density, poor infrastructure and limited talent base for relevant skills.
China is an even more massive country and didn't have an educated workforce (tons of farmers etc) before it began investing on building one. As for the population density, that's a red herring - China got workers brought over from the countryside to work in big cities, and America can do the same.