I just read an article in a trade magazine I get that was a "Readers Digest" version of a media analysis of the impact of Normalized Trade Relations with China. Not surprisingly, the primary impact has been the movement of manufacturing offshore. One plant, unionized, had a starting pay level of just over $8.00/hr. with a max of about $20.
When the plant owner (a multinational) announced that it was planning to relocate, the Union negotiated to try to keep the plant in the U.S. They offered concessions up to and including an equivalent $1/hr across-the-board pay reduction. The plant moved. The plant owner explained that, with benefits, the average Chinese worker makes the equivalent of $60 to $80 [i]per month[/i], between 50 to 80 times less that the equivalent American worker.
If you'd like to maintain the standard of living you currently enjoy, stop buying products "Made in China", and let the manufacturers know you are and why. We're the wealthiest nation in the world, but we're shipping money out by the containerload. Economics is not a zero-sum game, but what we're seeing is an increase in the standard of living of the rest of the world at a rate that will [i]require[/i] a reduction in our own. And an ever-widening gap between our "haves" and "have-nots".