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Buy America, weaken America
usnews ^ | 3/25/06 | Richard J. Newman

Posted on 03/25/2006 8:07:17 PM PST by ncountylee

The Durabrand 10-inch portable DVD player available at Wal-Mart retails for $199.94. A group of senators would like to raise the price to $254.67. The Creative Zen Nano Plus 512-megabyte MP3 player seems like a bargain at $89.72; less so at $114.39, the price the senators would prefer that you pay. The price hikes would be the result of a 27.5 percent tariff on goods imported from China, a proposal sponsored by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Senate this week.

Schumer and Graham aren't crazy, of course—they know better than most that taking money out of voters' pockets is a sure way to be sent packing. In other words, that 27.5 percent price hike won't be coming to a retailer near you anytime soon. But as an attention-getter, it's pretty good, and attention is what the two senators, and a number of colleagues who support them, are after. The chief bogeyman they want to flog is China's communist government, which—according to Schumer and the rest—deliberately keeps its currency undervalued in order to sell more cheap imports to the United States and other countries. Reasonable economists differ on that question. The tariff, if you buy the argument, would bring prices on Chinese imports closer to their unsubsidized value, leveling the playing field for honest tradespeople in, say, New York and South Carolina, who can't possibly produce goods as cheaply as the Chinese and still earn enough wages to buy all the DVD and MP players that they need.

(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 109th; china; economics; globalization; trade
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
Someone has to protect American industry, before we don't have any more.

Getting rid of the income tax and the minimum wage would be a good start.
281 posted on 03/26/2006 3:44:35 PM PST by Maurice Tift
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To: RFT1
Oh I know chnage is coming our way, but probably in the form of a liberal president and liberal congress to finish the "work" the Great Society didnt finish. People with the Limbaugh attitude are only pouring more fuel on the fire that is eating away of what made America great.

Exactly, we will end up with a Swedish style welfare system at some point if we continue down this road as our jobs disappear and so forth. It will be the only rational course of action when you factor in that the Limbaugh mentality will leave a vacuum and as I've always said, "nature abhores a vacuum" so something like that weill come to fill that need. Sure, we do need a welfare system, but set up to provide a hand up, not a hand out.

All these Limbaugh and Walter Williams types do is keep reinforcing the image of the rich as they were pictured in cartoons of the late 19th Century and the caractures that Marx has descrived in his works. In short, they are doing the leg work for Karl Marx without realizing it.
282 posted on 03/26/2006 3:49:01 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Michael Savage for President - 2008!)
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To: Nowhere Man

I've always found that argument amusing. In order to prevent socialism, we should embrace socialism.


283 posted on 03/26/2006 3:52:55 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: July 4th

We should have tariffs, one easy low rate of 5% across the board. They should be constant for every nation and not vary by nation for political purposes. The revenue from those tariffs, with a modest tax apportioned among the states, should finance all government operations (with a balanced budget) and the individual income tax should be abolished.


284 posted on 03/26/2006 3:59:29 PM PST by Jason_b
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To: 1rudeboy
I've always found that argument amusing. In order to prevent socialism, we should embrace socialism.

As they said in the Vietnam War, sometimes you have to burn down the village to save it.
285 posted on 03/26/2006 4:05:30 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Michael Savage for President - 2008!)
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To: ncountylee
I think we need more "Buy America" programs, and not more tariffs. How many of you recall the "Made in America" program from the late 70's and early 80's? I recall that approach worked very well. We need to let the free market correct this issue. IMHO
286 posted on 03/26/2006 4:14:14 PM PST by FlGoldwingGuy
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To: Vigilanteman

Thank you. Free trade is vitally important, but national security is the first responsiblity of our Federal government. And national security is not advanced by building up the economy of your enemy.

A British company is one thing; a Chinese company is another.


287 posted on 03/26/2006 5:11:29 PM PST by TBP
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To: grey_whiskers
In other words, many who have succeeded get quite nonchalant over the difficulty of reaching their success. Humility is a good thing.

It has to do with philosophy. There were 10 kids in my family but none were taught to get a job. They were all taught to make yourself a job. Bad grades are not tolerated in the family. Science and math courses are required, not a simple curriculum. Everyone is not cut out for their own business nor are they able to take advange of a good operitunity. We have two that have worked at a job all their life and they retired well. The rest work for themselves. My dad still had a business at 87. My mother is 83 and right now starting a new enterprise. We do it because we were expected to do it and we enjoy it. None had a big corporate company and I don't think anyone of us would want one. I did not pay for my children's collage and its not something I endorse. We all saved the money necessary to start our own business, it was not given to us. Yes I am nonchalant over starting a business and can do it anytime. Most of us failed one or two times but just went back and did it again. Knowledge and confidence are the keys. my daughter and niece both stared with small companies but only worked there for about two years before they sought contract work. They found it with Starbucks.

288 posted on 03/26/2006 5:15:32 PM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: endthematrix
Yep, dealing with Communists is profitable.

Actually I don't know but I would suspect not. Most communists restrict free enterprise and trade and are trade protectionists. I have never ask any supplier or banker if they were Communist, liberal, Conservative, libertarian, or any other philosophical entity. If its your requirement you can live by it and it would explain your attempt to slight.

289 posted on 03/26/2006 5:32:37 PM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: RFT1
Anyways, you seem to need to understand economics a little bit more, much less political science.

I have already succeeded at economics and know the principals very well and although knowledgeable in political science I have no desire to be be the servant of government. I leave that to you.

290 posted on 03/26/2006 5:43:05 PM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: supercat

Can anyone explain any problems in my theory
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There are no problems in your theory, you are absolutely correct. But you don't go far enough, there are many other taxes buried in the cost of goods, not just the income tax.

Plus, there is the cost of complying with all sorts or regulations, environmental and otherwise which the Chinese don't have to worry about, all this puts us at a great disadvantage. The question for the future is what all this will mean with new technology changing the face of manufacturing, in the future it may be possible to manufacture most of what we need with almost no labor input with the advent of nanotechnology. I am only speculating, I don't claim to have any idea what things will actually be like ten years from now but I think they will be hugely different from today.


291 posted on 03/26/2006 6:03:22 PM PST by RipSawyer (Acceptance of irrational thinking is expanding exponentiallly.)
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To: neutrino
Hamilton is generally not the Founding Father associated with small government Republican principles.

Others here have talked about the essential issue I raise - funding government. Minimalist government's funding mechanisms have ranges from the "flat tax" to the "head tax" to a voluntary tax system. To argue which one is most correct and consistent with the original American founding ideals is an argument I welcome.

BUT, it not what we argue about. We argue about Patrick Buchannen-style protectionism. You guys claim it's a national security issue and claim those who don't buy American are "traitors".

If you seek to make China the same as Al Qaida, then make that case convincingly and you'll have people on your side. Telling others that they're traitors because they don't save American jobs from foreign competition isn't the same thing.

Most of us can see that welfare wrapped in the American flag is a pretty disgusting site.

292 posted on 03/26/2006 6:33:31 PM PST by Rate_Determining_Step (US Military - Draining the Swamp of Terrorism since 2001!)
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To: RFT1

Back in the 50s and 60s, far more families could afford to raise a family with just the father working as well. While Americans can afford more usesless toys such as consumer electronics, it is more difficult to afford housing, fuel, medical and send children to college.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thank you, that is the type of thing I can't help but think of when people on FR want to tell me how,"real wages are higher than ever", I simply don't believe it and I don't see how anyone over fifty can believe it.

My younger brother said to me recently,"you know, luxuries are getting cheaper all the time but necessities are going sky high". "Thanks, I have been saying that same thing for twenty years", was my reply.


293 posted on 03/26/2006 6:36:45 PM PST by RipSawyer (Acceptance of irrational thinking is expanding exponentiallly.)
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To: jec41

. The wage at Westinghouse was the best in my town. It was ~$60 a week for a 48 hr. work week mandated in 1943.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..

My father was a carpenter, he made $60.00 a week for a forty hour week here in low-wage South Carolina in the mid-fifties. He supported my mother and four sons, we owned our property free and clear, our only vehicle was the 1951 Ford pickup that he drove to work but it was bought new for cash, no payments, we were DEBT FREE. By the way, my mother stayed home, she did not have a paying job, what she did at home was worth far more in imputed income than she could have earned at any job that was available to her.

We certainly didn't have all the luxuries people have now but we had the luxury of our own forty acres plus thousands of acres of our neighbors property on which young boys could roam at will and play all sorts of games, we had home grown pork, chicken, beef, eggs, vegetables etc. that tasted far better than what is sold in the stores and I learned things at a very young age that most young people never learn now. By the time I was a teenager I was doing things that would have the child protection agencies in an uproar now and I am glad I did all those things, they taught me to be self-reliant.


294 posted on 03/26/2006 6:58:59 PM PST by RipSawyer (Acceptance of irrational thinking is expanding exponentiallly.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Executives lie through their teeth every chance they get.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You noticed that too? I don't know if you can really call it lying or that they are just very good at convincing themselves that whatever is to their benefit must be the truth.

One thing I noticed long ago is that all employment aps have a line that says that furnishing false information is grounds for termination of any job you may obtain by furnishing false information. Yet, I don't think I ever took a job but what I found out later that I was lied to when applying for the job.


295 posted on 03/26/2006 7:09:04 PM PST by RipSawyer (Acceptance of irrational thinking is expanding exponentiallly.)
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To: RipSawyer
By the time I was a teenager I was doing things that would have the child protection agencies in an uproar now and I am glad I did all those things, they taught me to be self-reliant.

I grew up in Hampton SC. I drove to Allendale SC to get my drivers license in my own car the day I turned 14. It was 60 cents and supposed to be good for a lifetime. People were a whole lot more reliant then and could do on a lot less. Most seemed of a better nature than today.

296 posted on 03/26/2006 7:24:42 PM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: jec41; RFT1

Somehow it seems that one of you started by posting something about the 1950s and 1960s and then the other started talking about 1943. I was born in 1944 so I have only very limited memories of the very late 1940s but I have no doubt things were very tough then, especially during the war years, but things were much better in this area by the mid 1950s. There are many aspects of life in the mid 1950s that I think were better than today but I certainly would not want to go back to the 1940s.


297 posted on 03/26/2006 7:27:27 PM PST by RipSawyer (Acceptance of irrational thinking is expanding exponentiallly.)
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To: RipSawyer
My younger brother said to me recently,"you know, luxuries are getting cheaper all the time but necessities are going sky high". "Thanks, I have been saying that same thing for twenty years", was my reply.

You hit the nail on the head. Take a look at TV's, the TV I have is from 1982, a Zenith 25" console bought for like $650 in 1983 and it still works, although there is a slight heat problem and I'm trying to score a part for it, it is 24 years old after all. A 25 inch color set today might set you back $200 but generally they don't last as long. My aunt had an old "roundie" (the old color TV's with the round picture tube) from 1962 and she used it up until 1993 or so. Even with the necessities going up on price, the decision to spend $200 for a new TV today might be about the same as somebody deciding to spend $600 for a color TV in 1970.
298 posted on 03/26/2006 7:37:03 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Michael Savage for President - 2008!)
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To: RipSawyer
Somehow it seems that one of you started by posting something about the 1950s and 1960s and then the other started talking about 1943. I was born in 1944 so I have only very limited memories of the very late 1940s but I have no doubt things were very tough then, especially during the war years, but things were much better in this area by the mid 1950s. There are many aspects of life in the mid 1950s that I think were better than today but I certainly would not want to go back to the 1940s.

I was born in 1966 but being the armchair historian that I am, the problems in the late 1940's was a transition from a wartime 24/7 economy back to a standard peacetime economy and it was painful with all the GI's being mustered out to where they had to go back to their old jobs, housing was at a premium leading to suburbia and so on. It is like taking a car and throwing it from reverse to drive without stopping. I have an old 1944 magazine where even at that time, there was talk about making a few civilian products, although they had to be approved by the government for what and how much, because even in 1944 there was a light atthe end of the tunnel for World War II, at least for Europe as D-Day progressed.
299 posted on 03/26/2006 7:41:25 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Michael Savage for President - 2008!)
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To: jec41
It has to do with philosophy. There were 10 kids in my family but none were taught to get a job. They were all taught to make yourself a job. Bad grades are not tolerated in the family. Science and math courses are required, not a simple curriculum. Everyone is not cut out for their own business nor are they able to take advange of a good operitunity.

That's all I needed to hear you say...more power to you and yours!

P.S. In the meantime...
Where or from whom would you recommened someone learn from? Not everyone was blessed with the advantages and good examples in your family?

300 posted on 03/26/2006 8:03:26 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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