James Surowiecki has a great article in the New Yorker arguing that lower-income Americans enjoy the benefits of free trade with China far more than the wealthy because they spend a greater portion of their budgets on manufactured items; the sort that come (cheaply) from China. He concludes:

… the reality is that if we toughen our trade relations with China the benefits will be enjoyed by a few, since only a small percentage of Americans now work for companies that compete directly with Chinese manufacturers, while average Americans will feel the pain—in the form of higher prices—far more quickly and more directly than rich Americans will. Obama and Clinton, in their desire to help working Americans—and gain their votes—are pushing for policies that will also hurt them.

… and it’s also helping to lift millions (of Chinese workers) out of abject poverty. I harp on that a lot, but my suspicion is that 150 years from now, our descendants will look on this sort of system (destiny being primarily dependent upon the country one happens to be born in) much the same way we recoil in horror at the suggestion that the slave trade was somehow justifiable. 

Old city Shanghai, picture taken November 2005.