Posted on 02/08/2011 3:14:32 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
Just a friendly reminder: Americans increasingly don't make things. Any things!
Another friendly reminder: Americans increasingly only buy things.
A sad reminder: Every single thing we buy, is made elsewhere...
This is how a country goes broke.
Globalists come in both Democrat and Republican flavors.
At this 100th birthday of President Ronald Reagan, let’s remember one of his most remarkable, and powerful qualities:
“Reagan Democrats”.
The GOP has lost its way. It seems to do everything it can to eliminate jobs here - and send America’s greatness to nations like China.
President Reagan would not do that. President Reagan believed in America, and inspired working Americans by standing up for them.
“Free trade” stands up for no Americans. And it certainly does not help the GOP win votes.
LESSON: Smoot-Hawley
The real proble is that government has turned the once fertile soil (for industry) of the US toxic.
Blah blah blah.
Broken record...
Something must be done to eliminate the rupturing of American jobs overseas.
No sure that a tariff would work, based on Smoot-Hartley.
Perhaps direct economic retaliation against those nations like Red China whose economic policies are counter=productive to our best interests and do not constitute an equal playing field.
You might find this article interesting...
I will start checking...How about you?
You have to read the labels on everything.
A little time and effort beats permanent pessimism.
Courtesy ping for #7.
Smoot Hawley has ZERO relevance to America’s current situation.
At the time of Smoot Hawley, we were in the situation the Peoples Republic of China is now.
WE WILL WIN ANY TRADE WAR NOW.
We should start one. I’m completely serious.
Nicely done.
Happy Birthday President Reagan.
The next step is to forgo the buying decision entirely unless there is a US-made product available. This is much more difficult, but with the exception of electronics I have been doing this for several years. Upsets the family a bit. Probably would upset some FReepers, too. Tough.
That said, there are a lot of "conservatives" that will have apoplectic fits over folks exercising their free-market rights not to trade with Most Favored Nation PR China.
The ten boxes of Sylvania 4 pack light bulbs I purchased the other day (I'm stocking up before they're no longer available) are made in the US.
Rank hyperbole isn't helping your cause, CNN.
My cause is America. I also find it encouraging when I buy a product made in the USA. My last several sported the names “Zippo” and “Buck”. But let’s face facts and be realistic as we buy American?
Don’t deceive yourself into believing the fact you have found a single product - US made lightbulbs (which won’t be made for very much longer, at which point imported CFL’s will replace them) is evidence we are a manufacturing nation. That just isn’t so any longer.
Sending our jobs to China, certainly is not helping America, and only makes China a more formidable adversary by the day.
It is folly, and it is BAD FOR AMERICA.
We have avoided dealing headlong with this problem for too long. Now we are seeing the inevitable result.
There’s no longer any question “free trade” as currently practiced - is devastating America... and:
Isn’t working. We need a new approach. One good for America first.
There is no “free trade”.
We are already in a trade war! Problem is: We are not fighting back!
What is happening now is that “free trade” American (erstwhile) conservatives, have become the modern-day US equivalent, of Vichy French.
Ready willing and even enthusiastic to sell out their own nation.
I don’t get it.
John Hawkins: There was a lot of controversy last year about the steel tariffs that George Bush approved. Do those tariffs specifically, and tariffs in general, hurt or help our economy?
Walter Williams: They help some steel workers keep their jobs, but it turns out to be a losing proposition on balance. The reason why steel workers and their companies want tariffs on foreign steel is so they can raise the price of steel produced by U.S. companies. So, it will save some jobs in the steel industry, but one has to look at the "steel using industry." The companies in the U.S. that buy steel to produce their products are hurt by the tariffs. You find unemployment in those areas because of the higher costs of their inputs, which makes them less competitive on world markets. So what one has to look at is not the seen, but the unseen. Yes, you can see as a result of tariffs that more jobs are saved in the steel industry. What goes unseen are the jobs lost elsewhere because of the steel tariffs. Tariffs save some jobs at the expense of many, many other jobs.
A fairly succinct rebuttal, n'est-ce pas? Works for me anyway...
I guess wars will be illegal when we no longer make steel and hence no longer capable of making ships and tanks. Maybe our enemies will sell us steel so we can fight fair.
I believe Walter Williams shares some regrettable blindnesses, with George W Bush.
Don't get me wrong, now! I too share your frustration and angst at the loss of manufacturing.
I'm just suggesting you cut out the hyperbole.
You're completely free to not follow the suggestion.
I don’t get it.
Neither do I. Free trade isn't open trade.
Chinese tools are crap. I was blessed to inherit a large (machine-shop sized) set of circa-1980 tools. With the exception of a few odd “made in Japan” tools they are all US-Made (Craftsman, Snap-On and several long-defunct small makers). I have some even stouter 1940s vintage tools bought at a surplus auction. The 1/2” chuck electric drill in that group weighs 25 lbs and can uproot 3” trees when hooked to a winch! I make it my business to keep all those tools cleaned, lubed and in tip-top condition. A friend of mine who brags of buying all his tools from Harbor Freight is always asking to borrow mine...I wonder why? ;-)
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