Trade and Jobs
Today's technology caters to the higher educated, higher skilled people. People have to keep changing their specialties in order to keep up with technological innovation. Trade improves such technology. Some would argue that the "cost" of trade is jobs, however, jobs are constantly lost and new ones are consistently created. Every year, about four million jobs are lost and four million jobs are created. Despite trade, the number of jobs eradicated and gained reach an equilibrium. Trade doesn't cost us jobs, but rather creates new and different ones.
The logic behind the job churn/turnover is that those who lose their jobs were the first to benefit from trade in the first place. Trade doesn't kill jobs. Technology actually kills jobs by a factor of forty over trade. New jobs are dependent on technological innovation. Capital and labor are compliments to improvements.
Trade Surplus: less imports, more exports
Trade Deficit: more imports, less exports
People that assert that "America doesn't make things anymore" are full of shit. US manufacturing produces more than they ever have before. Not only that, but more things are produced with less employees. There has been almost no innovation within the healthcare and higher education sectors. Those jobs are generally "safe". Society will always need medicine and training for new skills. Employees in the two aforementioned job categories are paid less than employees in more at-risk job markets. This is because salary is directly correlated with job safety.
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