Principled Free Traders

Throckmorton gets this mostly correct. 

...So, the Principled Free Traders™ who opposed Trump for coercing China to make any trade reforms are now condemning Trump for not coercing China to make enough reforms. Further, these same Principled Free Traders™ who have no problem with China’s command-and-control government when it bars American products from its market are somehow offended that the Chinese government is making a command-and-control pledge to buy $200B of American goods.
The cognitive dissonance of the Principled Free Traders™ clears up if you understand their one true principle – they are “America Last” globalists who revel in America getting shafted, especially when it benefits non-Americans. When a blue-collar American’s job is shipped to a government-controlled factory in China, the Principled Free Traders™ celebrate with high-fives and chest bumps, all the while mocking the displaced American worker with taunts of “Your job isn’t coming back” or “Learn to code.” But when a blue-collar American gains employment to manufacture a product for export to China, the Principled Free Traders™ become deeply offended. It’s rather clear that the only thing they want to export is jobs. Maybe we ought to export the Principled Free Traders™ instead. Unfortunately, there just isn’t much of a market for unprincipled loudmouths who won’t pipe down about their principles....

See that part in red?  That's the part Throckmorton gets (mostly) wrong.  "Principled Free Traders" are interested in maximizing their profits.  That is Number One (and Two, and Three.....)  They don't really give a flying fig about "exporting" jobs.

But why are the jobs exported?  NOT for "cheaper labor"--although that's a bit complicated.  In PRChina and Vietnam, and Thailand, there is no EPA.  No OSHA.  No Social Security.  No pensions.  No Worker's Comp.  Damn little income tax.  And best of all:  no lawyers except those owned by the State.

Do you have any idea how much G&A expense falls off your P&L when all that stuff goes away?  Hell--you don't need Compliance, you don't need HR, you don't need Safety..........

Yes, the labor is cheaper, but direct labor is usually only about 5% of actual cost-of-product.

But profits?  Much, much, much, sweeter!!  Are profits evil?  No.  But if you are intellectually honest, you'd do what Throckmorton proposes here:

Maybe we ought to export the Principled Free Traders™ instead.

Well, they really ought to export themselves to their Preferred Plant Locations.  THAT would be principled and honest.  But that won't happen, so Trump did.

However NO LAWYERS!!! remains attractive, no?