Reddit mentions of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

Really, the first thing an economist will tell you is that their policies aren't adopted in full spirit by the politicians.

Most of them will tell you that free trade with open borders will lead to improved overall economic growth. That is a broad agreement. They are right, but they also urge politicians that these economic policies must also be adopted with other policies such as retraining programs and/or safety nets, which the politicians often fail to enact for those who got left behind by these policies.

In the following post someone showed a poll where economists had nearly unanimous agreement on the benefits of free trade, but you can see how many agree with the benefits of free trade while remaining skeptical that politics will take care of the people the way that economists warned they should be cared for.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/4psmof/sanders_disappointed_and_dismayed_about_platforms/d4ntwsl

There is a book you might enjoy reading by the economist Galbraith, even if the title is provocative:

The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

> The cult of the free market has dominated economic policy-talk since the Reagan revolution of nearly thirty years ago. Tax cuts and small government, monetarism, balanced budgets, deregulation, and free trade are the core elements of this dogma, a dogma so successful that even many liberals accept it. But a funny thing happened on the bridge to the twenty-first century. While liberals continue to bow before the free-market altar, conservatives in the style of George W. Bush have abandoned it altogether. That is why principled conservatives -- the Reagan true believers -- long ago abandoned Bush.