This is the Cato Daily podcast for Friday, April 11th, 2025. I'm Caleb Brown.

Americans are doing worse than in years past, and it's largely because of free trade.

That's basically the case laid out by defenders of the gargantuan tax increases advanced by the president in the form of tariffs,

it's also a lie.

Cato's Norber, Michelle, explains.

There is one argument that we hear from fans of President Trump over and over and over again

with respect to trade, And it is that trade has cost the middle

class, small towns, and the like dearly, that free trade has done this to people in the middle class.

So where do you start with that?

My starting point is to point out that the only reason the middle class has shrunk is that

it's gotten richer. It has not been decimated. And you can say what you want about people

losing factory jobs. But the truth of the matter is the middle class has not been decimated. And you can say what you want about people losing factory jobs, but the

truth of the matter is the middle class has not been hollowed out. The share of households earning

more than $100,000 has more than tripled over the last few decades. That's adjusted for

inflation. The share earning less than $100,000, shrink by 25%. So where did

they all go? They all went above. So it just isn't true. And you can look at income 10 different ways,

and nine of those 10 will show, yeah, actually, people have done a lot better.

Even low wage earners have done a lot better over the last several decades.

In many cases, for much of that time, the lowest wage earners had even more wage growth than the higher earners, moving into even higher income bracket. So it just isn't

the case that the American worker has lost out in terms of income. It just is not true.

What flavor does this argument take from the likes of J.D. Vance and Donald Trump? Multiple flavors.

The scariest one to me is this weird nostalgia for the 1950s. So I heard a great line this

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