I only heard the clip from here.. but it sounded like he said for long term prosperity, not necessary.

I assume what he was saying is that people will suffer while we force the market to move into isolation.

What he doesn't want to admit to the populous is that to have long term benefits of cheap labor, you have to have cheap labor.

So either you have that by being richer than other countries and outsourcing the labor, or isolating the country and subjugating a portion of the population so much that they are the cheap labor. That portion... Isn't going to be small if it's going to be able to provide everything for the rich who blast through resources like crazy.