Opinion: Supporting Trump is the easy, ineffective reaction to losing a factory job

To the editor: The Times’ article contains excellent reporting about how the North American Free Trade Agreement has shaped post-industrial America and manufacturing in Mexico. But articles about bereft blue-collar workers such as ex-Delphi factory employee Chris Wade often miss an element: educational obtainment. (“A tale of two cities: What happened when factory jobs moved from Warren, Ohio, to Juarez, Mexico,” Feb. 17)

If Wade had made some bootstrapping sacrifices after he obtained his buyout and attended community college and then a university, he might have been able to obtain a secure nursing or teaching job with a pension and benefits. College graduates in the U.S. have a 2% unemployment rate. In Mexico, a college degree is considered so valuable many holders proclaim their achievement on their business cards.

Wade might have also read some history and learned about the sacrifices the founders of the United Auto Workers made to get the automobile industry to listen to their demands, such as staging sit-down strikes (for some reason those never happen anymore) while being beaten by hired thugs. Or he might have read some Karl Marx, who predicted globalization more than 150 years ago but is derided in the U.S. as being the father of communism.

This is why President Trump declared when he was a candidate, “I love the poorly educated.” And it is why Wade and millions of others in a similar situation voted for him in droves.

Ron Shinkman, Sherman Oaks

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook