Photograph Source: Frypie – CC BY-SA 4.0

The New York Times had a lengthy piece giving a story on how the Democrats lost the support of working-class voters over the last three decades. The essence of the argument is that working-class voters were angered by Democrats’ support of “free trade” and the bailouts of the financial industry in the financial crisis. While this story is largely true it seriously understates the working-class cause for complaint.

First and foremost, our trade deals were not about free trade. They did little or nothing to free up trade in highly paid professional services, such as physicians’ and dentists’ services. As a result of the continued protectionism in these services our doctors get paid more than twice as much as their counterparts in other wealthy countries. At the same time, our manufacturing workers get paid less than manufacturing workers in Germany and other wealthy countries in Northern and Western Europe.

If we brought the pay of our doctors and dentists in line with pay in other wealthy countries it would save patients more than $100 billion a year ($800 per family) in healthcare costs. This........

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