BoatShoes;1798302 wrote:
The avg voter does not want to compete in a free market. They want to be protected.
That's probably very true. And generally I've believed that under trade restrictions discretionary income suffers, but the reality in a global labor market is not nearly enough good jobs are being created. I expect that only to get worse as AI and robots take even more jobs.
We may get some temporary relief, eventually, when the developing world where all these jobs are going catch-up and become consumers. But right now that outflow of capital is staying in those countries building their economies and infrastructures, which is necessary before they can become global consumers. That's the real transfer of wealth occurring, and it may make sense to think about managing/slowing that transfer until the other half of the equation starts to catch-up.
But if you look at how this plays out, the problem may just keep getting worse to the point you HAVE to have a social redistribution of goods & services (but perhaps not wealth, which won't matter much at that point). That could be as short as 20-30 years - just think about what the likes of Uber and autonomous vehicles are going to do to the entire transportation industry.