As the race to the White House continues, the leading candidates of
both parties struggle to court the remaining undecided voters. In doing so,
they've stressed the deficiencies of the current administration and of their
rival candidates. In general, I'm not too interested in what the candidates
have had to say about each other.

However, when they discuss the economy — and how they would change
current policy — I start to pay attention. If you had no access to information
on the economy other than listening to the presidential candidates — especially
the leading Democrats — you'd probably think that America was on the verge of
another Great Depression. Now, I understand that this is probably the result of
the political process (it would be awfully hard for a Democrat to get elected
by saying how good things are, wouldn't it?), but whatever the candidates would
have you believe, in 2007, we have things pretty darn good.

Now, I'm sure everyone reading this has heard the doomsday statistics.
Americans are losing jobs to overseas competitors. The housing crisis has left
the economy on the edge of recession. The monstrous fiscal debt is eventually
going to bring down the economy. Searching for a scapegoat, an overwhelming
number of Americans believe free trade is to blame.

While our economy is not perfect, the reality is this: We don't have
much to worry about. Furthermore, free trade is not the problem; it's the
solution.

Let's take a look at outsourcing, using the U.S. auto industry as an example.
Has the shift in auto manufacturing overseas been bad for U.S. workers?

In the 1960s, the U.S. auto industry was the worldwide leader, and the
average autoworker was paid very well. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing
into the present day, competition from foreign countries — especially Japan —
revealed the inefficiencies of Detroit. Politicians and union leaders decried
the trend and imposed tariffs on the foreign car manufacturers. It was argued
that without the tariffs, U.S. autoworkers would be left jobless and destitute
and the loss of jobs would be harmful to the American economy.

This is the general argument made against globalization and free trade,
and it has been made for decades. Whenever you hear Barack Obama or Hillary
Clinton talk about the dangers of free trade (and believe me, they will in Iowa
over the next five weeks), remember that the unemployment rate in the U.S. is
at historically low levels.

Despite the loss of the auto manufacturing jobs, and many other factory
jobs, the U.S.is as competitive as ever. According to a recent World Economic
Forum survey, the U.S. remains the most competitive economy in the world.

Along with low unemployment rates, jobs in the U.S. are far more
productive and pay better overall than they did 40 years ago. This is the
direct result of our comparative
advantage in education. While the manufacturing jobs of the past are mostly
gone, information and technology jobs provide better wages and higher standards
of living than ever before. Yet you wouldn't know this if you listened to the
men and women fighting to be the next president.

One of the things that bothers me most is the glorification of the past that we
hear so often. We look back on history (especially the '50s and '60s) and act
as if we’ve lost the Golden Age of American history. When I hear statements
like this, I'd love to challenge the speaker: Do you think living in an earlier
time would result in a better standard of living? In nearly every measurable
aspect of life, we’re better off today than we were yesterday.

I can already hear rebuttals from the left. They’ll claim that I’m
ignoring the harmful consequences of free trade and that globalization and free
trade create an environment in which the major powers (for example, the U.S. and
EU) exploit the developing world for their own benefit. Yet, this could not be
further from the truth. America has little to gain from keeping our trading
partners down. By facilitating the growth and prosperity of our neighbors,
America benefits from a more stable economic partner.

Every day, we hear about poverty and genocide in Africa. We read about
the poor in our own country, who go to bed hungry and without a place to sleep.
We hear this awful stuff, and it’s nearly impossible to accept that this is the
best we’ve ever done. We’ll continue to improve as the decades roll on, as we
learn more about the economy and as wealth continues to accumulate and spread
to new sections of the population.

I don’t want to simply say “everything’s
rosy” and leave it at that. There’s work to be done. But we need to be
intelligent and realistic before coming to pessimistic conclusions about the
economy, society and America as a whole.

Corey Sheahan ([email protected])
is a senior majoring in history and economics.