Posted on 01/11/2005 11:08:57 AM PST by TexasKamaAina
The United States’ trade deficit with China increased twenty-fold over the last 14 years, rising from $6.2 billion in 1989 to $124 billion in 2003. Moreover, it is expected to have increased by more than 20% in 2004 to over $150 billion. This deficit is impacting an ever-broadening segment of U.S. manufacturing, including advanced technology industries like semiconductors once thought immune to lower-wage Chinese competition...
Dr. Scott summarized the report findings as follows: “The assumptions we built our trade relationship with China on have proven to be a house of cards. Everyone knew we would lose jobs in labor-intensive industries like textiles and apparel, but we thought we could hold our own in the capital-intensive, high-tech arena. The numbers we’re seeing now put the lie to that hope – as China expands its share even in core industries such as autos and aerospace.”
(Excerpt) Read more at uscc.gov ...
I fail to see how exporting the U.S. manufacturing base is a good idea, free trade and cheap goods notwithstanding. It just seems like a bad strategic idea.
how do you fix it? tariffs?
Free trade creates wealth. I admit to being a bit of a 'Wall Street Journal' Republican (although as a Christian I believe that values and social conservatism come first), but this is an old debate that the protectionists have lost. If free trade costs jobs then we would have lost jobs during the 90s after GATT and NAFTA.
Protectionism will only result in a backwards economy and America being a second country. That is bad for jobs, not good.
Input please!!!!
My understanding is that there is no such free trade, we import their stuff with none or almost no tariffs, while they tariff stuff from us over 100% so no chinese can afford them.....
I would think that free trade would work if it was really free. Between un-even tariffs and government subsidised dumping, there is no free trade, just the extinction of the U.S. as a nation of importance....
Yes, we need them now.
i used to repeat that mantra a lot. but i read just this morning that not only are we losing our low wage jobs to china, but also our high tech jobs. im about to jump ship on the whole free trade thing - at least with regard to china.
Free trade is beginning to cost a lot.
you are correct. china and a lot of other countries slap tariffs all over our products and we put little to none on theirs.
if free trade were really free it would lessen our trade deficit, but it would likely not stop it until our common workers were able to work for about the same price as a "global wage average". that's my take on it.
so, academically speaking, if the average income for a four-person family outside the US is $15K, and the average for a US family is $55K (just for argument's sake), our trade deficit would disappear when our yearly wages fell into line with the rest of the world labor market.
am i wrong?
No it doesn't.
Wealth is only created by engaging in value-added industries: agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, etc.
Like other services, trade merely redistributes the wealth that is created.
The Trade Deficit is an indicator of the wealth that is flowing OUT of our domestic economy.
That is why it is subtacted from the other components that are used to calculate our GNP.
When you run to the store and say, "I want it cheap, I want it now, and I don't care where it comes from" this is what you get. And we've been doing that for nearly 50 years now.
Free trade is a lie. A misnomer. A convenient moniker for those who wish to exploit the disparities of the value of labor across political boundaries. When it becomes economical for java programmers to drive rickshaws around Calcutta, then you can start to talk about anything resembling "free trade".
I, and many before me believe 'America First' is, and always has been the way to go...
It ought to be clear to anyone who's god is not money that we are in a fast spiral to the bottom...And the only thing that can save us is to put America first, again...But yet many can't stand the thought of putting America, it's people and it's borders on the top of the priority heap...The global stock market will not save us...
Thanks to your son and you for the good job you did raising him. A third stint in Iraq stands out in many ways. I wish more young men had the same moral fiber so that nobody had to do a second year especially National Guardsmen.
I expect the dims to switch boats in the middle of the stream and endorse a policy of bringing back American jobs and stopping illegal immigration while the stupid party continues to swim upstream
There are choices.
1) Go all out and compete to stay ahead.
2) Sit back, place duties on imports, which need to be increasingly steeper since we will fall further behind.
Consequence to #2 is:
Ever and ever increasing prices, chased by higher wages, lessened competitiveness, more cheap jobs, higher unemployment, higher taxes, deepening poverty.
Go visit Europe they avg. 10% unemployment and increasing, with no answer of how to get out of it.
Adapt or the world will be governed out of India and China.
Laurels go to the winner.
Thank you for your kind words. God Bless and protect them all.
Protectionists haven't lost this debate. The Free Traders (at ANY cost) folks just won't concede what reality has proven.
>Protectinism will only result in a backwards economy and America being a second country. That is bad for jobs, not good<
I've been screaming against NAFTA, GAT, and the WTO since their inception, but Washington turns a deaf ear. (Part of the plan for One World Government.) It takes a certain amount of time for the effects of these agreements to show themselves fully, but they were very early in evidence, and Jobs WERE lost in the '90's.
Keeping industry, manufacturing and other kinds of jobs in America does NOT equal protectionism! It's what made our country thrive to a world super power. Outsourcing has made China and India thrive NOT the US of A.
Shame on us!
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