Countless Ordinary Americans Benefit When Companies Move to Mexico

Jon Alternative Media, Government, Politics

Matt Drudge has been applauding Donald Trump’s efforts at preventing companies from locating their production facilities to foreign countries.
When Carrier announced it would not be moving 1,000 positions to Mexico, the Drudge headline read:
“AMERICA GREAT AGAIN: CARRIER STAYS …“
Drudge carried a similar headline when Trump claimed credit for Ford Motor Company’s announcement that it would not be moving the production of a Lincoln SUV to Mexico. Ford does plan to move forward with moving more small-car production to Mexico in spite of the fact that Trump had earlier promised to slap a 35 percent tariff on auto imports from Mexico.
Unfortunately, the Drudge headlines are simply helping to perpetuate simplistic ideas of how wealth is built, and forwards the idea that free trade and free movement of capital somehow make most Americans poorer.
Indeed, it seems that most pundits and news organizations are treating it as a given that keeping auto production or air conditioning production within the borders of the United States is an automatic “win.”
Most of the criticism of the Trump Carrier deal has focused on the politics and legality of the deal. Some have even claimed that Carrier was essentially bought off with “subsidies” from the State of Indiana, and possibly the federal government as well.

This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on Dec 2, 2016.