As this vast transfer of U.S. wealth and technology was taking place, we were spending 6 percent of our GNP on defense, while free-riding Tokyo kept defense spending below 1 percent. Free trade ideologues side with the Japanese. But it is getting harder to convince the nation. As our share of world GDP had fallen, and the dollar has shrunk against the mark and yen, the real income of Americans who work with their hands, tools and machines has fallen 20 percent, in 20 years. Anecdotal evidence of a new two-tier economy is everywhere.
College graduates come home to live with parents.
Mothers leave children in day care, or at school, to take jobs to maintain the family standard of living. It is the Americans, not the Japanese, who are the riddle wrapped in the enigma here. As for those U.S. officials who incessantly lecture them on free trade, Japan's envoys must have a special contempt. For many of the biggest names wind up on Tokyo's payroll as lobbyists for the Empire of the Sun. But now only Middle America is now losing patience.