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The Trade Deficit Myth
American Thinker ^ | March 31, 2016 | Thomas Nichta

Posted on 03/31/2016 4:13:59 AM PDT by expat_panama

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To: Hoodat
This isn’t a nationalist issue. It is an economic one.

Economics and politics are intertwined and are really the same thing. Buying something is actually voting with your money. So politics is economics and vice versa. Only an idiot would think otherwise.

Every war was fought for same economic reason, maybe not the only reason but economics played a role. Free Traitors™ are simplistic booger eating mouth breathing morons.

41 posted on 03/31/2016 5:55:54 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

In the end, markets decide

The American markets, that is the American people, have decided they want both inexpensive goods from abroad and all the restrictive regulation protecting business, manufacturing, the environment etc


42 posted on 03/31/2016 5:58:06 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;+12, 73, ....carson is the kinder gentler trump.)
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To: cba123
You’re saying we need to keep buying imports, because we made a mistake in the 1930’s?

Need to? Nope, never said that. I am saying that people should have the freedom to buy whatever they want, regardless of where it is made. Buying Japanese cars ends up helping this country because people get a quality product that provides more utility for their dollars than buying some GM POS. Capitalism is an individual enterprise. If you restrict it, you suffer.


How is it we benefit, from sending all our money to a massive communist nations, which doesn’t even trade freely with us?

That communist nation needs a place to spend those dollars. There are currently two major markets for dollars:

1) Oil producing nations
2) the US Treasury

The key is to open up the American economy for foreign investment. If China uses those dollars to invest in businesses here, then Americans benefit. But we won't even let GM bring in dollars it actually created in China without penalizing the crap out of them.

43 posted on 03/31/2016 5:58:27 AM PDT by Hoodat (Article 4, Section 4)
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To: Sgt_Schultze
A good part of what makes Chinese manufactured products cheaper than those made in the US is our government regulations regarding the environment and labor practices.

Those regulations and taxes are loved buy the international big cap manufactures. They provide political cover to search the world for the cheapest labor. Free Traitor™ Conservatives go for the bait everytime carrying the water for socialists who run the major corporations.

44 posted on 03/31/2016 5:59:07 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
Economics and politics are intertwined and are really the same thing

Nope. Not even close. Politics is the study of power. Economics is the study of scarcity.

45 posted on 03/31/2016 6:00:00 AM PDT by Hoodat (Article 4, Section 4)
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To: expat_panama
...your grocer has no need for your programming skills...
What an incredibly foolish man! Or maybe it is woman...
The grocer needs the cash I earn as a programmer. Thus, the grocer certainly does "need" my programming skills, my plumbing skill, my investing acumen, my 401k....my EBT card.
46 posted on 03/31/2016 6:11:12 AM PDT by citizen (GOPe: The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

You are absolutely right about why we can’t compete, and regulation is the primary culprit, but your solution is not correct. Just as companies don’t pay taxes, consumers do, the same goes for tariffs. You raise taxes the consumer pays. You raise or create tariffs the consumer pays.

You are also correct that we don’t practice fair trade in the U.S. unfortunately. What needs to be remembered is that the countries that impose tariffs are only hurting themselves. As long as trade is voluntary and free, it is irrelevant that the country we trade with manipulates their market by tariffs. If it weren’t advantageous to the american companies involved in the trade, THEY WOULDN’T DO IT. And if people didn’t want these goods, THEY WOULDN’T BUY THEM!The fretting over some benign trade deficit is foolish, and history proves this very fact.

Also, you must consider that this trade does create jobs and business in our country, enables us to be the provider of higher end goods at cheaper prices, and is a net positive for this country.


47 posted on 03/31/2016 6:11:22 AM PDT by Vanbasten
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To: Vanbasten

Manufacturing is a harder base than “Service.” we have become a service industry country.


48 posted on 03/31/2016 6:11:53 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: ReaganGeneration2

We have a goods-out deficit, but a goods-in surplus
.....................................................
talk about upside-down thinking!


49 posted on 03/31/2016 6:14:09 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Mollypitcher1

Yes, we have become more of a service economy. The question is would Americans be better off if it wasn’t? Does it need to be ‘harder’? And we still manufacture high end goods that can’t be made well by these same countries, and require higher education, higher paying jobs.


50 posted on 03/31/2016 6:16:44 AM PDT by Vanbasten
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To: dp0622
"Many should read the 1920s document on Republcians’ stance on trade."

It was the trade policies of this era that had a major factor in causing the Great Depression of the '30s

51 posted on 03/31/2016 6:18:11 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones)
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To: Hoodat
Nope. Not even close. Politics is the study of power. Economics is the study of scarcity.

Preposterous.

I believe Darwin's theory to an extent. Natural section alters species but it doesn't come near to explaining the origin of species. I do not think the earth is 5000 years old. The earth is 4 Billion years old.

But the real stupidity here is that the evolutionist looks at God's creation of life and say it proves evolution. There is nothing more preposterous than that.

Economics and money specifically, was a way of quantifying and placing a value on work and time. There is nothing more political that that. The simple act of taxation is more proof than anyone could ever offer.

52 posted on 03/31/2016 6:35:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: InterceptPoint

The missing ingredient in the cake baked for consumption by the average reader is something called American consumerism. America represents 29.9 % of the world consumption. We should be buying more of OUR OWN PRODUCTS, rebuilding our manufacturing base. WHY does China now own Smithfield, once a pride and joy of Virginia. WHY does Germany now own Budweiser? WHY is JEEP no longer an American Product right along with TV’s, radios, automobiles, etc. etc. etc? What used to be proud American Companies are now owned by FOREIGNERS.


53 posted on 03/31/2016 6:58:57 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Hoodat

So Bernie Sanders copycats Donald Trump, well so does Raphael Cruz!


54 posted on 03/31/2016 7:01:06 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: bert

America is all its people AND its government!


55 posted on 03/31/2016 7:02:29 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Mollypitcher1
We should be buying more of OUR OWN PRODUCTS, rebuilding our manufacturing base. WHY does China now own Smithfield, once a pride and joy of Virginia. WHY does Germany now own Budweiser? WHY is JEEP no longer an American Product right along with TV’s, radios, automobiles, etc. etc. etc? What used to be proud American Companies are now owned by FOREIGNERS.

Good questions. But we need answers.
Would Trump tariffs solve this "problem"?
What is your solution?

56 posted on 03/31/2016 7:11:38 AM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: dp0622

“there is SUCH A THING as a trade deficit, and that means a lot LESS goods are being exported than imported.”

So the Chinese are giving us stuff for nothing?


57 posted on 03/31/2016 7:20:21 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: InterceptPoint

Well armed doesn’t just mean having a pistol. Simple solutions are stupid. Everybody seems to want a cookie-cutter answer. The problem is complex and demands complex answers. A surgeon doesn’t use just one “tool” to complete an effective surgery, not does a mechanic use just one tool to repair a broken engine. Tariffs are part of the TOOL BOX that is necessary to repair our economic decline. Anyone who doesn’t see this is downright STUPID!


58 posted on 03/31/2016 7:25:06 AM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Vanbasten

“The worst probably being that inhumane sweatshops do exist in countries to produce goods for our economic benefit”

Unless those people working in “sweatshops” are doing so at the point of a gun, it probably means that it’s better than other alternatives available to them. So it must be a step up from what they were previously doing.

And their main motivation is not OUR economic benefit but THEIRS.


59 posted on 03/31/2016 7:28:12 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: aquila48

Yes, in many cases you are correct, but let’s not pretend that in these communist countries they AREN’T working in inhumane conditions at the point of a gun.

And of course they are working to their benefit, just like we buy their goods for our benefit that’s pretty much the whole point of a free market!


60 posted on 03/31/2016 7:33:28 AM PDT by Vanbasten
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