Trade does not raise our standard of living? I guess if you have to pay $1000 for a DVD player, $10000 for a HDTV set or $50000 for a Ford Focus you would really feel your standard of living raised. That could really justify $1M for a tract home and support our real estate! LOL
BTW, Japan was low wage before it became high wage. Asian tigers (Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan, South Korea) were the same.
There are certainly a lot of drawbacks, but benefits shouldn’t be denied because of the downsides.
