The Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus and Uncontrolled Free Trade are Sinking American Living Standards

With the end of the 1990s economic boom, The Race to the Bottom deftly explores how the United States has entered a no-win global competition in which the countries with the lowest wages, weakest workplace safety laws, and toughest repression of unions win investment from the U.S. and Europe. Tonelson analyzes how the entry of such population giants as China, India, and Mexico into the global market has accelerated the erosion of wages and labor standards around the world. And he describes how an ever-larger share of this low-wage competition is hitting not just sectors like apparel and toys, but also many of America's highest wage industries like aerospace and software. Tonelson explains why the re-education and retraining programs touted by many political leaders offer little but false hopes to most U.S. workers as he outlines the real decisions Washington needs to make to ensure long-term prosperity for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Updated with a new prologue from the author.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Dated would like to see a new updated edition, 2007-01-02
I'd like to see this book be updated so that it addresses current conditions, as it is now quite dated. Many of the premises have not come to pass, although some have. The global economy is booming, but how is the U.S. economy really doing considering the savings rate in the U.S. was below 0 last year and the trade deficit is so large? Unemployment in the U.S. is down, but what is the nature of the jobs workers in the U.S. are doing now, in comparison to the nature of those jobs when the book was first written? What predictions have come to pass and which ones have not come to pass?


4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Real free trade is based on comparative advantage,not absolute advantage and offsets, 2006-01-17
Tonelson has done an excellent job of empirically demonstrating the irreparable harm being done to the American industrial manufacturing sector, resulting from the pseudo-free trade argument that currently masquerades by the name of globalization.The entire globalization argument rests on an appeal to absolute advantage(for example,American firms should locate their factories and production facilities where labor costs are the lowest).Free trade is based on comparative advantage,not absolute advantage.American firms are free to locate production facilities in foreign countries as long as the output produced from these facilities is used to supply the foreign market.The output can't be shipped back to the home market without violating the basic rules of comparative advantage.Any requirement by a foreign country that ,in order for American firms to locate production facilities in that country,the American firms must hand over or share their technological breakthroughs,inventions,patents,or innovations involves a direct violation of the theory of trade between counties based on the existing comparative advantages that exist in both countries industries.Unfortunately,Tonelson does not spell this out clearly,although his discussions on pp.97-98 demonstate that the correct definition of comparatve advantage has been replaced by one that has no connection to the meaning of the term as used by Adam Smith or David Ricardo.I have deducted one star for this omission.


5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Kaleem needs and education!, 2005-12-04
Kaleem 9984....LOL....THIS dudes a hypocrit! First of all...a foreigner (who's probably an Indian programmer) is not a impartial reviewer. I am a programmer and work with numerous foreigners...BTW they are not as talented as rumor has it. They frequently lie on their resumes to get into positions and...as evidenced by the exporation of NUMEROUS PROGRAMMING jobs back to India...they are not loyal to this country or any corporation that hired them on the H1b visa (a political bill that was fronted by american corporations). This book however...is right on target.

Kaleem should speak in terms of the substance of the book..and not of other reviewers who may differ from his opinion. I believe, as many americans, that we should no longer import items from other countries...we don't need them.


0 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

Whats wrong with amazon, 2005-11-11
Whats wrong with Amazon how could they put review by this person - " John W. Runyan III "Too much time on my hands " in spotlight. It's clearly evident he is one of those people who have some small town mentality, come with a preconceived opinion which will never change and probably didnt read the book and wrote a review.

By the way talking of indian programmers, I am a development manager and work with lots of them. They are helping our economy in many ways. I seen that most americans do not go to school, do not have strong mathematical background, do not have strong analytical skills, this is where the indians are useful. Most of them I see have their Master's degree and often have strong engineering backgrounds. If you are a programmer you would know how useful these skills can be. In my experience americans are generally good with the quality-assurance, management level or business side of work. Leave the hard-core intense programming to the foreigners, they seem to do it better.


18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

No better book for understanding the truth about "free trade, 2004-08-05
I have ready many books about globalization and its effects, but Alan Tonelson's "The Race to the Bottom: Why a Worldwide Worker Surplus and Uncontrolled Free Trade are Sinking American Living Standards" is the ONLY book to explain the truth behind globalization. If the US public understood just simple facts, like the difference between producer goods and consumer goods, it would be clear why the US has the most massive trade deficit in history; and the US public would demand that congress act to stop the fast track legislation given to the president. (This is being carried out now by Bush, but was negotiated under Clinton. In other words, both parties are complicit in the destruction of the US middle class.)

As Tonelson says, "Current globalization policies have plunged the great majority of U.S. workers into a great worldwide race to the bottom, into a no-win scramble for work and livelihoods with hundreds of millions of their already impoverished counterparts across the globe. In addition, by sapping the earnings power of U.S. consumers, who are almost single-handedly propping up the world economy despite their sagging earnings, continuing this race could all too easily bring the global financial house of cards tumbling down."

Tonelson doesn't merely make a statement like this, he proves it with expert economic analysis that he explains clearly to the lay public.

Read this book and act on it, before the U.S. middle-class is further eroded.

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