Posted on 08/28/2015 5:32:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Edited on 08/28/2015 6:19:18 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
There are few things these days on which both Main Street and Capitol Hill agree, but one of them is undoubtedly the idea that a flood of artificially cheap Chinese imports is bludgeoning the American economy and propelling
(Excerpt) Read more at lincicome.blogspot.com ...
All I am saying is, we’ve in just one generation, managed to build up China to the largest manufacturer on the entire planet, mostly we have done that by de-Industrializing right here in America.
I am ready to bring back American jobs.
Bigtime.
Several years ago, a Chinese researcher took a sabbatical in the lab where I did my graduate research. For Christmas every year, we would draw names from a hat in order to play Secret Santa.
I drew the Chinese researcher’s name.
I thought it would be nice to get him something strictly American, to remind him of the time he spent working in our lab. I shopped and shopped. Everything was “Made in China.”
I finally settled on buying an item with an American theme and pulling off the “Made in China” sticker before wrapping it. I felt terrible, but what else could I do?
Outside of the firm, Scott is an Adjunct Scholar with the Cato Institute, where he writes on international economic policy and politics. He also is a Senior Visiting Lecturer at Duke University Law School and a Visiting Lecturer at Duke University, where he teaches courses on international trade law and international trade policy, respectively. -
Gee, this guy sounds like an objective, disinterested observer--not. I am so sick of these guys. Stop pissing on my leg and telling me it is raining.
Most of the things I buy are made in China. Nowadays, anything made in the United States has a small American flag on it to alert customers. When was the last time anyone has seen clothing made in the United States, unless you get on the internet and search it out?
I would appreciate it better if you could refute his arguments instead of questioning his background.
RE: mostly we have done that by de-Industrializing right here in America.
The figures the author cites do not support the belief that we are de-industrializing.
In fact, his argument seems to be that jobs are being lost here due to GREATER productivity in this country brought about by AUTOMATION.
Dealing with these consumption products in American homes (the ones we buy from say, WAL-MART) might give a distorted perspective of what America makes and our relationship with the rest of the world.
The fact is, America still makes many things that are sold abroad and domestically — just not things that are found in the house.
There is the economy we see in our daily lives and there is the hidden economy, which is out of sight and out of mind; that’s the real economy, It makes the economy we see happen because it’s productive, innovative and profit making, and that’s what makes America successful.
According to Moody’s Analytics, when it comes to manufacturing the U.S. is a global leader in the production of medical equipment, vehicles, airplanes, movies, pharmaceuticals and agriculture products.
Aside from movies, although Americans may come into contact with these products they are not goods that consumers purchase. Such advanced, higher-value sectors are driving America’s economy and the continued growth and advancement of those fields will sustain it.
These advanced industries require a higher level of skill, from industrial design to industrial production,m It requires a different kind of American worker.
Your post is the best short essay on economics I have read on FR and rivals the best writings of Ricardo. Amazing how many folks, even here, don’t get it that the source of wealth is the ability to produce. The rest is all redistribution.
There's nothing surprising or informative about that. It's long been known that the cost of producing sneakers in Asia is just below or above about $10.00 per pair. And the huge mark-ups to $50.00 to $200.00 or more per pair cover very high marketing expense paid to athletes and sports teams that use particular brands, and to profit.
What the above actually supports is that only a few Americans benefit from profits made from many of the industries largely relocated from the US to cheap labor nations.
Counting the expenses and profits realized on imported goods in the US as the US portion of income from imports is total BS. You could up with similar ratios for goods produced in the US and then distributed to the final sales point. - We have the hundreds of billions in trade deficits valued at fairly low productions costs of imports, but the deficits still total hundreds of billions which is indicative of how many millions of manufacturing jobs have been relocated from the US.
And these productivity stats are mostly likely from the same old bogus productivity stats calculated on manufacturing still done in the US, and then compared to previous eras when the more labor intensive, and lower productivity industries were still in the US and part of prior years productivity calculations. Much of it is not real productivity gains, but merely shedding the more labor intensive and lower productivity manufacturing from the calculation.
This 'study' looks like a bunch of contorted BS designed to yield the desired conclusion
Where does this writer account for the $1 trillion spent annually on means tested government poverty programs, going largely to welfare recipients and the unemployed and marginally employed? That's the real "benefits" of shedding millions of manufacturing jobs and being left with an economy which has no jobs for millions of people.
That, in a nutshell is the real issue: trade with China depresses US wages-- if the goods were manufactured here, US wages would be higher and the margins lower.
If you look at the US trade deficit since 1970, there has been an enormous transfer of wealth from the US to East Asia.
About the only equivalent I can think of is the Soviet Union's stripping of conquered German territory of all its manufacturing equipment.
The study fails to take into consideration what the effects of these "benefits" are on US wages and real GDP growth.
It's not accidental that Nixon taking the US off the gold standard allowed the trade deficit to balloon to epic proportions, nor is it accidental that the US became the world's preeminent industrial power behind a tariff wall.
The real question is how many more Americans would be employed at high wage manufacturing jobs instead of low wage retail and services if it weren't for the enormous trade deficits.
The China threat to American industry consists in the extraordinarily high American tax on business and the ever proliferating and already onerous regulation of American industry all of which is rapidly pricing American industry out of the market or out of the USA.
It is not worth the effort. He is just a corporatist and globalist. He has a vested interest in defending the status quo. I have seen firsthand China’s industrial capacity, thanks to foreign investment. China isn’t playing by the rules. Running huge deficits is not a good thing for American workers.
A Krugman grad?
You don’t off shore and ruin( knowledge, supply chains, etc.) your manufacturing base because we have DC problem. That is like killing the patient to cure the cancer. Stupid.
RE: The amount of money in imports may be small but how much would the value of American products be if the same products were made in America?
To see how import tariffs will help or hurt the USA, let’s look at recent history -— how did GW Bush imposing 30% tariffs on STEEL from China, Korea and Brazil in 2003 help?
Not much good. Those tariffs caused the domestic price for some steel products, such as hot-rolled steel, to rise by as much as 40 percent. The clear beneficiaries of the Bush steel tariffs were steel industry executives, stockholders and the approximately 1,700 steelworker jobs that were saved.
After a few years, the tariffs were rolled back.
Maybe you’d like to see another round of this...
RE: ny way they have all kinds of figures like illegals do not commit crimes nor do they take away jobs or lower the income of Americans. Do you believe those as well?
The article is about imports and exports and manufacturing. If you want to talk about illegals and how we can stop them, let’s open another thread.
Go out and buy me an American made flat screen and a American made cell phone and get back to me.
“The article is about imports and exports and manufacturing. If you want to talk about illegals and how we can stop them, let’s open another thread.”
These figures come from the same people.
“The China threat to American industry consists in the extraordinarily high American tax on business and the ever proliferating and already onerous regulation of American industry all of which is rapidly pricing American industry out of the market or out of the USA.”
So you are going to give tax cuts and regulatory breaks on the people who are bringing in illegals? Not me! We will give them when the border is secure until government gets control of spending and when their corporate media stops smearing us then we will talk about tax cuts and business reg breaks. Until then they can just shove it.
Too many conservatives believe along with ALL liberals that nothing can possibly happen if the government doesn't make it happen. Read some good books like Economics in One lesson or Freedom to Choose. Get educated. Learn how it works.
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