Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Our readersApril 20, 2018
Workers make clothes to be exported at a clothing factory in Huaibei, China, June 1, 2015. (CNS photo/Stringer, EPA)

Forty-eight percent of respondents to the above question told America that U.S. trade policy should prioritize workers worldwide. Creede Caldwell of Madison, Wis., explained: “In a global economy, what affects other countries affects us all. If we want to have a just and prosperous home, our businesses must sustain ethical practices everywhere.”

Michael Finocchiaro of Wilmington, Del., concurred: “The Catholic social teaching principle of solidarity requires us to think globally and act locally. National boundaries are artificial and do not affect each worker’s right to dignified work and livable wages." 

Thirty-four percent of respondents to our informal survey, distributed on social media and in our email newsletter, told us that U.S. workers should be the foremost priority for U.S. trade policy. “A government’s first priority is to its citizens, particularly those citizens who need protection,” wrote Will Redmond of Silver Spring, Md. “That doesn’t mean U.S. workers are our only priority; the interests of workers should not be allowed to supersede the imperatives of human rights or world peace.” Megan W. of Portland, Tenn., agreed that U.S. workers should be prioritized. “We need to make sure our own workers are taken care of first, followed by consumers. It needs to be what is best for the American people first, not businesses.”

Of the remaining respondents to our poll, 18 percent said that U.S. consumers should be the first priority of U.S. trade policy, and only 1 percent of respondents thought business owners should be prioritized.

Related to the above question, America also asked this sample of readers: Do you make an effort to “buy American?” In response, 72 percent said yes. “I tend to buy American when I can,” said Zach Wilson of Saint Paul, Minn. “Not for nationalistic reasons, but because there is a higher likelihood that the workers involved in its production were treated more fairly than those in many of our import partners.”

Survey results.

More: Economics
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We, the members of the Society of Jesus, continue to be lifted up in prayer, in lament, in protest at the death and destruction that continue to reign in Gaza and other territories in Israel/Palestine, spilling over into the surrounding countries of the Middle East."
The Society of JesusMarch 28, 2024
A child wounded in an I.D.F. bombardment is brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 25. (AP Photo/Ismael abu dayyah)
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 28, 2024
Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.
Stephanie SaldañaMarch 28, 2024