By James Stuber,Author & Founder, MadeInAmericaAgain.org-Contributor, The American Dossier
The Center for Disease Control has issued a report finding that life expectancy in the United States declined again last year. What are we to do about that? James Stuber, author of the recent book, What if Things Were Made in America Again, says “there is a simple, powerful solution: stop sending people’s jobs to other countries.
Stuber explained: “The rise in “deaths of despair” from suicide, overdose, and alcohol chronicled by Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton exactly parallels the rise in the U.S. trade in goods deficit with China, as shown in these charts:
“And this is no coincidence - the communities hardest hit by Chinese competition see higher rates of these deaths. And they are only the most dramatic of the many social ills these communities face.”
Stuber continued: “Our opinion leaders in academia and journalism must begin to recognize the unfairness and immorality of inflicting these consequences on ordinary Americans in the name of low price or curing poverty abroad. It has become clear that free trade and globalization are not, after all, lifting all boats, but our elites have been too willing to write off the destroyed lives and communities as the justifiable cost of the projects either of low prices for Americans or of lifting millions of foreigners out of poverty.
“Ultimately, however, only consumers can solve this problem. Employment in good manufacturing jobs is the keystone of the economic and social health of communities in the heartland, and consumers can create those jobs, by choosing to buy things made in those communities instead of abroad. But this is no longer a “nice to do” – as the CDC report shows, this is literally a matter of life and death.”
For more information on Stuber’s research, visit www.madeinamericaagain.org