Academics now are saying that, from 1999 to 2010, six-million manufacturing jobs, one-third of all US manufacturing employment, were lost to China and had nothing to do with robots or automation. Blue-collar workers instinctively knew that, and it was one of the reasons they supported Trump who openly said so. According to the academics, the introduction of China into the global trading system is the root cause of the job losses. [True though this may be, we must not forget that none of this could have happened without the eager support of American political, financial, and industrial leaders. In that sense, they are just as much the cause, if not more so, than the Chinese.] [...]
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