If foreign trade actually were responsible for the corporate layoffs, the phenomenal rise of imports and exports in recent years should have disemployed most Americans. Surely, if imports would destroy jobs, this 7,800 percent rise in imports since 1950 should have thrown most Americans out of work. It is difficult to imagine our present working conditions and standards of living if the U.S. government had turned inward and closed its borders in 1950, as the Hoover Administration managed to perpetrate in 1930. Even if the disruption of trade and immediate foreign retaliation would not have brought another depression, the crushing burden which radical liberal administrations placed on the economy during the 1960s and 70s would surely have depressed the economy and drastically lowered American levels of living. Similarly, if there had been no foreign investments, the staggering budget deficits of the 1980s and '90s would have drained the capital market and paralyzed the economy.
Employment always is a phenomenon of productivity and cost.
In a market economy, in booms and depressions, there is an unlimited demand for labor that makes productive contributions. Labor that costs more than it is expected to produce, whether it is unskilled or armed with triple degrees, is devoid of any demand. This applies to actors and administrators, systems analysts, software programmers, automatic engineers, and aeronautical scientists. Much university-educated labor remains unemployed because it is not in touch with the labor market. Graduating from mammoth state universities and guided by Pell grants, Work Study grants, Stafford loans, Perkins loans, and numerous other federal and state support programs, many graduates are ill equipped for useful employment.