It's also pretty clear that any economic benefits that there were, didn't benefit all of society equally,
So the competitive advantage for any country now boils down to the entire nation optimizing for cost. A country like China can do this, because the cost optimization for USA = lifting someone out of poverty in China. They are at the rock bottom of cost already.
Now that China has learned to optimize for cost, they will continue down that path - AI, robotics whatever tool they can amass to drive down cost, they will.
Meanwhile, other nations arbitrage about quality of life, politics, hatred of the rich so on and so forth and let the cost optimization slide. Ideally if every country optimized for cost, free trade would work like magic. Sadly, China is the only country doing that and rest of the world is now beholden to them, losing their once cherished competitive advantage.
Now China which once was derided for cheap quality has learned to build quality at scale and for cheap. Literally no one can compete with them on price:quality ratio. 3-4 decades of cost optimizations have paid off immensely for them.
China has to put up nets on its factories and subsidize entire swathes of its economy, for decades, to be competitive.
Currently - the value of labor is being eroded by the value of automation. This is why it’s no longer possible for India to succeed by turning into a manufacturing powerhouse. The global option now is in having effective service industries. Generative AI is already throwing a wrench in that plan.
This is leaving ZERO room for people with ordinary resources, knowledge and skills.
The idea that free trade is the problem, may have held for a specific window in time. That window was small and has closed. The larger issue is automation, and the displacement of neophyte workers.
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My personal take - the challenge today is helping people actualize themselves. This is a very fuzzy term, and frankly it embarrasses me to use it. But we have better tools, practice, and science behind human thinking. I’ve used this knowledge practically, and I’ve seen results in team performance and motivation.