On Trade, Trump Is an Encyclopedia of Error (Enormous Barf Alert!!!)

Townhall.com ^ | June 30, 2016 | Steve Chapman

[Jarhead9297]

We start imposing tarrifs those costs will be without a doubt passed to the consumer. There is no debating that. That is why I hate tarrifs when a federal income tax is in place. Either get rid of fed income tax and impose tarrifs or get the hell out of the way of a free marketplace and keep the fed tax in place.

[Pelham]

Steve Chapman’s economic expertise comes from his student days at Harvard where he worked on the Harvard Crimson.

In other words he’s just another pompous Harvard know it all parroting conventional wisdom.

[Pelham]

‘Drat! Does this mean that townhall.com is a hotbed of RINOs’

Of course. It’s part of the Salem Media octopus. They gobbled up every once-independent conservative outlet that they could.

Salem Media uses itself as the propaganda arm of the GOPe.

[RayChuang88]

And he’s modernized some very famous golf courses in Scotland, of all things. Can you imagine in the future when the Open Championship is played on one of Trump’s golf courses in Scotland like Turnberry? :-)

[central_va]

I tariff imposes the TRUE cost of goods on the consumer which includes social cost. Also a 20% tariff balances the budget tomorrow. Vote for Hillary if you like the status quo.

[central_va]

A tariff increases the cost of imported goods and lowers the demand causing unemployment - in China.

[Mase]

It is a fact that steep tariffs and the industrial revolution are what made America great. Fact.

Yup. Prosperity is driven by higher taxes and a five year plan. It's the conservative approach to economics. Fact.

[Mase]

90 million in the U. S. out of work

those that changed the trade policies...

Yup. It has nothing to do with overreaching government bureaucracy, stifling regulation, the highest corporate taxes in the world, or out of control litigation.

Nope. It's all because of trade.

[Mase]

Other countries impose tariffs and currency manipulations and we are left with no jobs and fewer businesses. So how are these free markets fair?

If other countries shoot themselves in the foot, economically speaking, and punish their citizens/consumers, then we should do the same. Freedom is so overrated

[central_va]

It is odd how many “conservatives” defend the status quo, income taxes and open rape trade. Whew in fact all the founders were for severe import tariffs. I guess those founders were a leftist lot...

[DoughtyOne]

Glad you finally figured that out...

[Mase]

The FF's were clearly on the side of big government making buying and selling decisions for us since they are much more qualified to know what's best for us than we are. Just look at the event that got it all started. The Boston Tea Party was a reaction to the people having far too much freedom to choose from whom and where they bought their tea. Those fools called themselves the Sons of Liberty. What the hell were they thinking? Allowing free people to freely choose from whom they bought and sold and what price they paid? The horror! They should have called themselves the sons of fools. since, obviously, King George, just like today's government, had only our best interests at heart.

[Mase]

Yeah, I see it now. Only through greater control of the economy by government, higher prices for all consumers, more trial lawyers and an EPA twice the size it is today, will we finally get the economy we so deserve. Thank goodness real conservatives are for these things. I wouldn't want to mistake them for those crazy smaller government/freedom loving types. Those idiots have destroyed our economy!

[Jarhead9297]

I agree with what you are saying and it is very logical. However unemployment in China doesn’t necessarily create employment here. We tarrif a good or product China does so in kind. Now yes we do have quite the trade deficit however you don’t think they’ll target an American good that is selling at the top in China as retribution? Tarrifs should ONLY be in place for its original intent to provide revenue to the government as its sole means of funding and nothing else. Today it is used by the government to pick product winners and losers. Drive those out of business you want while at the same time the ensuing tarrif war drive out of business more American companies as well.

[DoughtyOne]

Mase, I’ll give you ten guesses to figure out which nation was second to none without sending 90 million of it’s jobs to China.

You folks could buy a clue.

[Mase]

The only way to reverse that (beyond stopping automation in factories - and good luck with that) is to make government more powerful over the economy by empowering know-nothing bureaucrats to tell industry how to conduct their business. Throw in more onerous regulations (you must just love the EPA), more powerful unions (See GM), higher taxes for goods and services so consumers can afford less, and our economy will certainly explode. If not, be sure to turn the trial lawyers loose with the full support and backing of the federal government.

I don't think that's how all those jobs I saw loaded into shipping containers and moved overseas are going to come back, but if it makes you feel better then so be it.

[DoughtyOne]

Mase, we took sub normal savings off the backs of 90 million of our neighbors.

Explain to me how making zero is not as bad as paying a few more percent on goods coming into our nation, which you don’t pay until you purchase something when you can afford it. Well you can’t.

Right now, those unemployed folks aren’t buying anything. Do you think that has impact on local communities? Evidently not.

Not only are we hollowing out our own nation’s (missing) employees, their families, their neighbors, their communities, their states, and the nation, since they have no income, don’t contribute to the local economies and pay taxes on that income, at the same time we are empowering the biggest global threat.

China won’t allow manufacturing on the mainland unless our businesses turn over all proprietary information. Thus China has been gifted with over 100 years of our patent database affecting anything manufactured in China by U. S. businesses.

China has rebuilt it’s infrastructure through this process.

Our infrastructure has been completely ignored.

You are a clueless wonder.

[Mase]

Clearly, you can make up any information you need to sell your silly and sophomoric world view. Believing that you can force industry to do your bidding in the face of overwhelming government regulation, taxation and litigation proves only that you have no idea what you're talking about. If your five year type command economy was a viable solution, the collectivist economies of the world would be the strongest rather than the eternal basket cases they are.

You want to blame the freedom of free people to freely buy and sell goods and services that are in their best interests, as long as no laws are being broken, for the state of the current economy. Although you see your efforts as noble, they are hopelessly misguided. If you really cared about the plight of those who suffer from businesses leaving our shores or not being able to compete, you'd be demanding that government get the hell out of the way and allow the most competitive workers and the most innovative economy in history do what it does best. Instead, you argue that we need to further empower the very people who created the problems in the first place so they can fix the problems they created. Denying free people their right to freedom is no solution - not a conservative one anyway.

Trade isn't the problem. Government policies that chase industries away is the problem. Fixing the problem (government) is the answer. Treating industry like criminals is not. Your faith in even bigger government is unfortunate.

[DoughtyOne]

Make stuff up? LMAO

You’ve had things your way for 25 years.

Tell me how that has worked for our nation.

Free trade has not been free, and you’re stuck here with your eyes glued shut.

At no point does it dawn on you that with basically the same government regulations in place, we became a nation second to none.

Now you blame our losses on simply government over-regulation. I don’t agree with government over-regulation, but we don’t have more of it now than we did in 1990.

There was no magic tipping point in 1990.

It was a lust for more profits at any cost that spurred this and you know it.

And while capitalism is great when common sense is applied, it can be very destructive too, when it is corrupted.

And in this sense Capitalism was corrupted to drain our nation dry and jump start China into a major world power.

You haven’t got a leg to stand on there.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

we don’t have more of it now than we did in 1990.

Yeah we do.

There was no magic tipping point in 1990.

No, it was 1992.

Just the demolition of health insurance in half the country, and the unobtainable EPA regs on the auto and energy sectors are enough to do serious damage to the US economy.

Then there was The Community Re-investment Act.

Thank God for the Reagan build-up, and Newt and the boys.