You cannot make decisions in a vacuum. If the US did not engage in free trade with China, and instead placed high taxes on Chinese manufactured goods then Russia or the EU would have led the electronics and people-intensive manufacturing companies. Can you imagine Apple trying to compete states side? Impossible. Global US market share would have plummeted.<p>Did engaging in free trade with China negatively impact low-skill workers? Absolutely. But the answer to that is not to try to stop competition, it&#x27;s to create more training programs and wealth redistribution. Furthermore, there are _plenty_ of jobs China can&#x27;t take (construction, fruit picking, etc) but instead of wages for those jobs going up, America allowed Mexican workers (illegals, temporary foreign workers, and low skill legal migrants) to compete with an already over competing sector of the American workforce.<p>When farmers would remark that &quot;Americans don&#x27;t want these jobs&quot; that is such a load of bullshit. Of course Americans want those jobs. They just don&#x27;t want them at $5&#x2F;hour. What should have been allowed to happen is that supply and demand should have done their thing and there would have been many hard, but good paying, low skill jobs in America.