81–90 of 357 posts
I think this is a great example of hampering technical manufacturing growth in the US.
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Not to disagree (or agree), but it seems to me most USians were quite happy to buy cheap Chinese crap at Walmart & Amazon in the last decades, thus off-shoring their own jobs. The chickens are home to roost.
This started well before the Chinese were into manufacturing, clear back in the 70s with cheap Japanese imports. Then it moved to Taiwan, and now China. Honestly, wages in the US have been too high to avoid this for quite a long time, and the only way I see consumer manufacturing moving back is through increased automation. Unfortunately, I see no realistic way to bring back the kind of manufacturing jobs in the same…
Especially your point about automation. Now imagine a world where the US can make things again at a cost competitive rate due to automation. Ok, now look at how those goods would be taxed overseas...
We still would have an export problem due to other country’s protectionist tariffs.
The point of the trade negotiations is to get better terms for US exports. This is critical as we come to a turning point in manufacturing.
A repost of my comment from few months ago: When it comes to trade war topic these days, most Western commentators completely miss that a trade war is what China was preparing for the last three decades. They well expected somebody like Trump eventually coming, as well as economic pressure on a scale even bigger than what the West puts on North Korea and banana republics. They totally understood that the West will no…
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"I disagree." In other words you think that subsidies and senseless bureaucratic obstacles are better than tariffs? The OP is not saying that tariffs are a good thing, he's saying that tariffs are so obviously bad & stupid that they're easier to get rid of and negotiate away. Subsidies and senseless bureaucratic obstacles are just as damaging as tariffs but they are harder to get rid of.
Regulatory requirements on product safety and environmental standards are not senseless bureaucratic obstacles.
I really hate the new tariff. There is no need to be going into a trade war against not only traditionally our rivals but also our allies now too. The economy is recovering and I believe it may now be heading toward a recession. Here's the quick data on job created in raw number without the quality of the job to show that it is recovering since the 2008 recession: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2…
So why not free trade? I hate the idea of tariffs, but when your "allies" have had non reciprocal tariffs something needs to be done. I think all of this would go away if all tariffs against US products were removed
Intellectual property rights/copyright laws, both linchpins of US policy, are the very definition of government intervention.
The US aerospace and manufacturing industry is overwhelmingly subsidized by the military complex, a lot of it done under the auspices of "national security". For the US to complain about Airbus or Bombardier is simply incredible.
US agriculture is outrageously subsidized. I'll go into a specific example in a moment, but the notion that that the US is trying to play fair is simply incredible.
The US loses at the US-created WTO time and time again (see: Canadian softwood) and simply ignores the rulings.
"but when your "allies" have had non reciprocal tariffs"
I don't know what example you're thinking of, but let's consider the case of Canada (a country that the US has a trade surplus with). Canada has supply management for dairy to ensure a supply that matches demand to ensure food security. To protect this, Canada applies a high tariff for imports above the quota.
"So unfair to US farmers!" yells Trump.
Only here's the problem with his ignorant, easily swayed vision.
Canada exports less dairy to the US than vice versa. Like, 1/2 as much. The whole point of supply management is that it doesn't generate an excess, and for that small industry the exports and imports are generally only for very specialized things.
US dairy, in contrast, is hugely subsidized. To the tune of 74% of US dairy income comes, directly and indirectly, from the US government (0% in Canada comes from the government). Hence US farmers grossly overproduce and then look to dump it elsewhere, destroying production elsewhere. Just as US corn production is essentially a government enterprise, flooding the world with corn by-products and HFCSs.
Who is the villain here? Trump can rattle off some scary number to his clueless fans (I'd steer clear of the pejoratives, but given that Trump is a lifetime grifter and con man, whose virtually every statement is an outrageous lie, it is incredible that someone can be called his fan), but Canada has nothing at all, whatsoever, to do with those poor American farmers. It certainly isn't Canadian milk on American shelves causing their ills, because Canadian milk isn't on their shelves.
Nor did China cause the US poor to live in such dire straights. This is just the latest example of the US becoming more and more polarized, while convincing the poorest that it's always some external reason why they live in destitution in the richest nation on Earth.
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I disagree. Wavepool, Maytag, etc.. Americans washer and dryer cloth machines pushed for Tariff from the Obama administration to fight against Samsung and other. The tariff target machine coming out from specific countries so Samsung and other moved to other South Eastern companies such as Vietnam. So the American companies pushed for tariff for all incoming washing machine that aren't American. Trump administration…
"I'm not a libertarian but The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith states that all country will have certain expertise they are just good at. Whether it is because the geography that enable them to be better than other or other things, because they're good at certain thing, countries should play to their strength and trade for what they need." And I am not against free trade (well, with reservations), but I think this id…
Not to mention the chicken and egg problems - are they dysfunctional because of monoindustry or monoindustry because they are dysfunctional? Dysfunction leads to monoindustry since the base cannot be lost to war - see conflict minerals. Everyone wisely stays away and refuses to trade with smash and grab warlords and despots out of self preservation alone - owners wisely do not want to legitimise that sort of capital seizing for the same reason one doesn't try to work for a non survival desperation cannibal. They did it before and will probably do it again to you when convenient.
Causation and correlation with such messy subjects that I can see your point even if I disagree with the cause.
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I’m not sure you understand how nations work. We elect people to work in our best interests. We are in competition with other countries. Our blue collar jobs have stagnated since we’ve been off-shoring manufacturing to China. The poor in the US were getting poorer. Not everyone has the ability to transition into a thinking job and we need a balanced economy for these people.
It's the whole competition mentality. If anything the US is in a competition against themselves. Everything seems to fight against helping your fellow man and all about gettings yours before anyone get's theirs. Healthcare for you fellow citizens? So controversial. Billions of dollars for war and killing others? Well that's ok then, let's spend that money no questions asked. You guys are at competition so much with e…
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The entire worldwide trade order was created by the US throwing its weight around. Those cheap Chinese goods, Korea, Japan, the WTO, the poles of axis. Drug prices, intellectual property protections. All courtesy of the US. That order that made the US the richest country in the world, home to the most powerful companies in the world. So the whole Trump narrative that you're regurgitating is a bit odd. And it is alrea…
It seems like they are forced to play the US agenda. Are they going to end their military protection agreements with the most powerful military in the world? Are they going to close access to the world largest market? If they want to have a nation in 20 years they likely will not stop playing the US agenda
What a strange claim. How are they going to lose their nation? The EU has a GDP 20x Russia's (not to mention having nuclear armed nations). Canada alone has a GDP 2x Russia. Any of these countries can fend off any imaginary assault, most of which are instigated by the US.
The largest market...wait, do you think the US is going to close its doors? Well say goodbye to Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft...well just go through every US company. GM sells more cars in China than they do in the US.
It's a very, very different world. US pull just isn't as strong as the post war world when the US was mighty and everyone else was rebuilding.
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It's the whole competition mentality. If anything the US is in a competition against themselves. Everything seems to fight against helping your fellow man and all about gettings yours before anyone get's theirs. Healthcare for you fellow citizens? So controversial. Billions of dollars for war and killing others? Well that's ok then, let's spend that money no questions asked. You guys are at competition so much with e…
I don't think anybody is fighting against helping their fellow man. What they are angry about is having the big guns of government pointed at their heads while the rewards of their labor are siphoned away under the guise of charity. Once you help someone at another person's expense, you've crossed the border between charity and extortion.
Health insurance, to keep that example rolling, has nothing to do with charity. It has all to do with the pooling of risks.
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I’m not sure you understand how nations work. We elect people to work in our best interests. We are in competition with other countries. Our blue collar jobs have stagnated since we’ve been off-shoring manufacturing to China. The poor in the US were getting poorer. Not everyone has the ability to transition into a thinking job and we need a balanced economy for these people.
Then tax the rich and feed the poor. Don’t erode the competitive advantage of America. The solution is pretty simple. People are looking east instead of west for everything.
Please be specific.