Yes, the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs is a sad story, but is just part of the picture. There are also millions of smart ambitious people in the developing world who are willing to do the same work as our doctors, dentists, lawyers and other professions for a lot less money.
But the people who design trade policy have made sure that these people don't have the opportunity to put the same downward pressure on our most highly paid workers, as did their counterparts working in families. And, for what it's worth, the trade model works the same when we're talking about doctors as manufacturing workers. Less pay for U.S. doctors means lower cost health care, just as lower pay for textile workers means cheaper clothes.
The key point is that winners in the global economy, along with the big corporations, got their good fortune because they rigged the process, not because of anything inherent in the nature of globalization. (This is the point of my book Rigged: How the Rules of Globalization and the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.)
On this basic point, the media have no more interest in truth than Donald Trump. Hence, we can expect further media parroting about being "tough" on trade.
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