An inability to count

Those attached to the political class, both elected and in the commentary subgroup seem to consistently demonstrate an inability to count. Witness two examples:

#1 - The manufacturing decline - some Washington pundits yammered about the "decline" in manufacturing in the country. Indeed the share of workers employed in manufacturing in the US has declined. At the same time productivity has increased. A third factor which might be considered were anyone listening would be what has happened to other parts of the economy. (And growth in non-manufacturing jobs has grown pretty vigorously.) A normal person would look at all that data and conclude a) we have a pretty dynamic economy and b) think about ways to focus on the positive. But people like Kevin Phillips and Pat Buchanan can't seem to do that. Presumably, we will soon hear from these wits that we should soon worry about shortages in food because the share of the workforce dedicated to agriculture has declined. After all, less than a century ago more than half the population worked in agriculture.

#2 - The Columbia trade pact - Speaker Pelosi delayed, perhaps permanently, the Columbia trade pact by refusing to calendar a vote on it. Under fast track authority when an agreement is submitted to the Congress it has to be voted up or down in 90 days. Pelosi is claiming that labor activists in Columbia are in "danger." The real reason for this extraordinary maneuver is Pelosi's slavish devotion to less than 7% of the workforce - the labor luddites. In the short and long term, we benefit from increased trade, from small pacts like the Columbia one, and from larger ones. We here is the entire economy not the declining percentage of workers who belong to unions.