[lightbyte]

>If we're going to have an EPA and OSHA and the rest, then we have to tax imports from places that don't in proportion to the degree that they don't. Otherwise we have to drop these protections and be content with huffing pollution. After all, if we want to enjoy super-cheap manufactured goods then it's only fair that we also "enjoy" the externalities of this production. Either way it's fair to our working class. They get jobs.

This doesn't make sense. Taxing imports like that would make the things the middle class needs even more expensive. Now not only do that not have jobs, they can't afford anything. Removing protections would not make jobs come back, there is zero benefit to the companies responsible for that. On the chance any did, congrats now some people can get a job for $1.00/hr to complete with the workers in Vietnam. Now they have jobs and still can't afford anything. The jobs that left are not coming back no matter what we do. There's no point arguing about it or trying to save the sicking ship because it's already at the bottom of the ocean in two pieces. We need accept this as a society and try to solve it, not try and go back in time.

[api]

If people make more they can afford to spend more. What we need is an upward spiral in place of the downward (deflationary) spiral we have now.