Here are some observations from a retired Texan living in Switzerland, a land of free enterprise, and many small … and some large … manufacturers that export over half of what they make. This is a country with really solid primary and secondary schools that graduate literate young citizens; trade schools for the 80% and universities for the 20%; and a land where if you’re here illegally and you are not a true and registered refugee, you will be caught and unceremoniously deported. (Switzerland’s unfortunate decision to be coerced into the Schengen Agreement has led to complications with migrants first passing through EU countries.)

When a country like the United States signs trade deals such that most of its manufacturing is lost on the altar of “Free Trade” (i.e., that which was employing millions of skilled citizens making average incomes, and such that the R&D that heretofore went into improving the products from those now non-existent plants also was replaced), then you have what you have throughout the Midwest and Southeastern United States: many shutdown factories and towns with crumbling infrastructures; and, stagnant numbers of young American technical graduates.