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Opinion L.A.

Opinion: Say it ain’t so, Joe -- that you oppose free trade

By Michael McGough
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Joe the Plumber -- a.k.a. Samuel Wurzelbacher -- is running for Congress from Ohio. His platform seems to be in tune with the Republican Party under whose banner he wants to run -- with one exception. He opposes free-trade agreements.

It’s an article of faith in blue-collar America that free-trade agreements cost American jobs and that the solution is to boycott foreign goods. As a bumper sticker I remember from my days in Pittsburgh put it: ‘Be American. Buy American.’ ABC News must have that sticker in its control room. Periodically it runs a feature lamenting the lack of ‘Made in America’ products.

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The problem with this view of the world is that free-trade agreements help U.S. industries by opening up the export market. Yet the workers in those industries never show up in the popular accounting of the advantages and disadvantages of open markets. Maybe Joe will meet some of them on the campaign trail.

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-- Michael McGough

Opinion L.A.
Michael McGough

Michael McGough is the Los Angeles Times’ former senior editorial writer, based in Washington, D.C. He wrote editorials for The Times from 2006 to 2021. Before that, McGough worked for 30 years for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a reporter, editorial writer, editorial page editor and Washington correspondent. He wrote about law, national security, politics, foreign policy and religion. McGough is a graduate of Allegheny College and also attended the University of Kent at Canterbury in England and Yale Law School, where he received a master of studies in law degree.

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