Ian Fletcher and Marc Fasteau write:
* The US has been losing the international competition for high-value industries and the good jobs, wealth, tax revenues, and national defense capabilities they provide. From 1998 to 2010, 6 million US manufacturing jobs disappeared. Many – 3.5 million between 1991 and 2019 alone – are estimated to have been lost due to imports. Real wages for nonsupervisory workers have stagnated for 40 years in part because of such job losses. Consumers have benefited from the imports, but not enough to outweigh the lost industries and jobs.
* Key military components now come from abroad, some from China and other adversaries, leaving the US exposed to supply cutoffs, sabotage, and spyware. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerability of America’s medical and other important supply chains.
