Cat Potts, Chapter 12, Question 5

After reading the blog posts of some of my classmates, Chapter 12 grows even more intriguing. It's fascinating how controversial the topics of trade and protectionism can be. Personally, I don't understand why protectionism is so pertinent in our society. I think it comes back to pride, as we've discussed before in class, and something that I've talked about in previous blogposts. America doesn't have to be on top all the time. We're actually worse off that way! Keeping jobs in America may be patriotic, but think about the example Wheelan uses with the engineer- their human capital goes to waste if these well-educated workers are spending time doing mundane tasks because Americans are too prideful. I get it; Americans are all about freedom, justice, independence, etc. But what good is pride when it inhibits us from contributing to the rest of the world? "But, Cat, what about the people who get paid practically nothing in another country for creating goods for trade?" Cost of living is also something to be considered. Wheelan uses the example of the worker in Maine getting paid $14 dollars an hour and a worker in Vietnam getting paid only $1 an hour for the same task. But keep it in perspective: How far does a dollar in the United States go, compared to a dollar in Vietnam? After doing some googling (not bing-ing. Sorry, Mr. Hoffner.), I found that most things (rent, groceries, consumer goods) cost at least 50% less in Vietnam compared to the US. Now, I get that Vietnam is just an example and those stats may or may not be accurate and that making just US minimum wage is still not ideal, but the point is that it's perspective. We have to be careful of our pride holding us back.