Posted on 02/07/2017 8:14:36 AM PST by xzins
The United States ran a merchandise trade deficit of $734,316,300,000 in 2016, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.
During 2016, the U.S. imported $2,188,940,500,000 in goods but exported only $1,454,624,200,000.
The People’s Republic of China was the greatest contributor to the U.S. merchandise trade deficit for the year. The U.S bilateral merchandise trade deficit with China was $347,037,900,000. This deficit resulted from the U.S. importing $462,813,000,000 in goods from China while exporting only $115,775,100,00 in goods to China.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
I’ll never understand those who argue that it’s better to have a company move to another country.
They are traitors. Now do you understand?
There are no penalties if a US company moves their factory to Mexico, as long as that factory doesn’t sell back into the US. The move to Mexico saves the US company from US taxes, regs, and labor costs. In other words, it stops all support of the US which would help keep US jobs going.
I’d venture a guess at Swingline. They used to produce high quality staplers in the US. Now they produce crap in Mexico, but they’re still in business. Just don’t ask me to buy one of their aluminum-framed aggravation machines. They don’t need any punitive tar if to keep them out of American offices. There are other markets besides the US, and for any country that relocated to Mexico, or is contemplating it, they have to factor in the costs versus the benefits, including the Trump tariff and market share in other countries. I think the Trump tariff is a good idea, but not a cure-all.
What kind of people would base what they buy, on how much it costs, only?
What kind of people would _not_ try to buy products made by their own countrymen? Giving the own neighbors an income?
What kind of people have USAians become? Spiting their own countries livelihood.
The difference is that you are using money as an end in itself. Friedman sees it only as the means to acquire goods. I recall hearing him talk about exporting green pieces of paper in exchange for these goods.
There is something Friedman leaves out here, it's not a complete picture. But the more important lesson is that people think about trade incorrectly, and he's not wrong about that.
You have a trade imbalance with your supermarket, or your barber, or your employer. One of you gets more money from your exchange than the other. But that's not a bad thing, that's good. Each of you chose to make that exchange because it was beneficial, and it does you no damage.
If we get cheaper goods from China then that means that all the consumers that buy those goods are richer by whatever amount they saved. Nobody counts that. But that sum is always greater than income that would be earned by people making those things. Cheaper imports make us better off as a whole.
They are called traitors.
With Free Trade their are winners and loser. With protectionism it is just degrees of winning. No real losers.
Hopefully your gloBULList type is not longer in power and Pres Trump can save US industry and perhaps reverse the offshoring. I hole you have a heart attack watching all the winning.
No, the money you save is your money. It has the same multiplier effects as the money earned by working in a factory.
"Hopefully your gloBULList type is not longer in power..."
I'm not any sort of "gloBULList type". I'm simply explaining how things really work. It's not my fault if that conflicts with anyone else's beliefs.
You have zero understanding of how things work and I doubt you understand how protectionism works and how successful it has been in the past. Stuff your failed theories up your < deleted >. You are condescending jerk.
I buy American made products when I can. American made goods are top quality and often not inexpensive. In Asian countries, American made goods are highly sought after and a status symbol.
I hope everyone here wears american made shoes like Redwing, Wolverine, New Balance, Allen Edmunds and Alden. The quality far exceeds not only Asian produced shoes, but often over priced European shoes as well. Many “made in Italy” products today are made by Chinese laborers in sweatshops, not by Italian craftsmen.
My car is a foreign make, but is made in the USA with mostly USA made parts. A great car and inexpensive as well.
Anyway, a lot of why US manufactured products fell behind in the 70’s and 80’s was because of bad management. US companies were run by crony clicks of elderly men who were clueless about market conditions. That’s why they were so slow to change styles and aesthetics of products with the fake vinyl rag tops on cars and fake wood on appliances that turned off younger consumers. Those two design blunders alone were major factors in the collapse of two industries. Japanese electronics in the 80’s didn’t have ugly fake plastic wood on them, no one under 60 would tolerate that crap in their house. The Apple comeback was built on a foundation of improved design and ergonomics. The iMac was the fist PC that didn’t look so ugly people wanted to hide it in a back room. And it was easier to set up and use.
Cultural factors are critical in manufacturing. German and Japanese prowess in manufacturing is an outgrowth of cultural traits.
Not if it impoverishes the people here who made that stuff. We might get cheaper goods and then pay for it in higher taxes/inflation to support those unemployed by shipping their jobs overseas.
I have no problem with a corporations who build a factory overseas to sell to the locals or "free trade" with countries that pay their workers around the same as ours and have some restrictions on the manufacturers that are somewhat close to ours, but IMO, "Global Competition" is nothing more than fancy words for "A Race to the Bottom".
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