Lots of people are unemployed or working crappier jobs than what (usually) their father did in the same hometown. GDP might be higher but I’m not convinced large amounts of people are better off.
Idk where you live, but it certainly can appear this way in the US and Europe. However, living standards have still increased no matter how you measure them. Consumer goods are vastly cheaper than they used to be relative to a person’s wage. Everybody has electricity and internet and a microwave and cell phone. That didn’t exist 75 years ago. Boomers grew up during an economic miracle where we were the only industrial power on the planet (since the other ones blew each other up during WW2 or were agrarian economies with even less access to healthcare than Americans have), so all manufactured and valued-added goods were made in the US. And during WW2 reconstruction we loaned those countries money to rebuild and they paid us interest for decades. And once Europe got on their feet, they joined in the “only people capable of making complex manufactured goods” club. That doesn’t last forever though.
No matter how you slice it, on a global scale wealth inequality has decreased and will continue to do, just as abject poverty continues to decrease and life expectancy increase (outside of the brief intermission for COVID and the next pandemic). Wealth inequality has increased in the richer countries.
I agree with everything you said.
But what I am saying is there are towns that were industrial powerhouses that now is full of unemployment. Things like microwaves and TV are going to be cheaper now whether they were made in country or out. I’m not saying that everything needs to be made in the country I’m just saying you aren’t going to convert an entire workforce to do finance. I’m not convinced completely free any open trade is right.
There are some people out there that are best off doing factory work, or whatever, and then could be better for the country to have workers being paid 1100 (100 more than in other countries) but that person has in income of 1100 and isn’t taking let’s say 500 from the government.
From a business point of view going from wages of 1100 to 1000 is better. But from a country point of view 100 saved to wages isn’t worth the 1000 in salary and GDP loss and the extra cost of the 500.
