Well, Broadsword, let's look at this a bit:
Moving to shield battered domestic manufacturers from foreign imports, Indonesia is slapping restrictions on at least 500 products this month, demanding special licenses and new fees on imports. Russia is hiking tariffs on imported cars, poultry and pork. France is launching a state fund to protect French companies from foreign takeovers. Officials in Argentina and Brazil are seeking to raise tariffs on products from imported wine and textiles to leather goods and peaches, according to the World Trade Organization.
LINK
OK, this is a 2008 article - but notice Brazil on the list of trade-protected countries. My understanding is that China also has trade protection policies. Each has rapid growth.
But here's the problem. I'm not saying that free trade, as currently practiced by the U.S., is necessarily good or bad. I am troubled by the lack of analysis. People simply say "Free trade is good!" Is it? Is it always?
Keep in mind the tendency of wages I mentioned previously. As pressure on wages increases, the ability to service debt (mortgages, for example) declines.
A Google search on Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, produces articles with quite a different perspective. Which, again, is not to say he's right or wrong, just that there isn't as much depth of understanding of the policy implications as might be appropriate.
Grateful, you mention house sizes. But is that due to free trade entirely? Or are there other factors? Which factors predominate? I suggest that we don't know. So...maybe we as a nation should try to find out before we commit ourselves to that free trade policy.