Now the next item of yours is priceless:
And you think hammering American consumers for 50% higher taxes on goods they purchase is a good idea?
Oh, "they purchase" them? What about the middle-men who don't give the "consumers" a choice? So you don't think they will somehow find a cheaper alternative to Chinese goods over at WalMart or Target? I do. You must not think very highly of their managements.
Have you considered what that will do to their standard of living?
You guys should have thought of that before you tried to make the U.S. dependent on an enemy nation. Best to shut them down now before the currency is totally debauched and our last industry destroyed. I suspect that it is really YOUR standard of living you are worrying about, not some selfless concern for your fellow American...if indeed you really are one. In any event, I would surmise you likely make your living by importing from China. IF so, then you are a part of the problem, and have proceeded in this conversation under cover of anonymity to advance a duplicitous position.
Free trade is a process of mutual advantage, which you seem hellbent on placing Washington, D.C. in the midst of.
I reiterate. We don't currently have free trade. Note, China has massive tariffs against us right now. They are in violation of virtually all their WTO requirements. From recognizing and protecting intellectual property law, tariff phase-outs, de-pegging and floating their currency, eliminating partner joint venture requirements, allowing employee freedoms of movement and defending their wages. Etc. China does not currently permit unprotected trade...
Trade requires that they honor and respect property rights. Newsflash: They are still communist. I bet you haven't read their "Constitution."
And at the same time advocate policies to make trade prohibitively expensive. Do you know what prohibit means?
Free trade, is mis-claimed by your China apologist side.
Stick to what I say, don't construct strawmen and then argue against them.
Free trade is not what we have currently.
Agreed, our government can only ensure it doesn't interfere with us.
we have allowed their GOVERNMENT to dictate all the terms of trade and all the players. Hence we have artificial trade constructs.
How other people are restricted in their ability to trade is beyond the purview of our government.
Look at the wage differential between Hong Kong and Taiwan versus mainland China.
Do you think Hong Kong achieved it's wage power by restricting trade with the world?
Oh, "they purchase" them? What about the middle-men who don't give the "consumers" a choice?
Consumers decide whether to purchase anything. The middle-men look the world over for goods that consumers will decide help improve their living standards. You want to cut off a source for those goods, or at least make them 'prohibitively expensive'.
So you don't think they will somehow find a cheaper alternative to Chinese goods over at WalMart or Target? I do. You must not think very highly of their managements.
Economic adjustments are not automatic, and while you squander billions of dollars of investment in productive facilities by government fiat it's the American consumers and the companies they invest their savings in who will feel the pinch.
You guys should have thought of that before you tried to make the U.S. dependent on an enemy nation.
You guys? You missed the most important aspect of Washington's address - the desire on the part of some to constantly create enemies as justification for enlarging the sphere of the state. Already in this thread you want to prop up China as an enemy in order to exert control from Washington, D.C. over the rights of Americans to trade as they see fit.
Best to shut them down now before the currency is totally debauched and our last industry destroyed.
The debasement of the U.S. currency is a function of government debt. China is powerless to debase our currency, it's because of the GOP controlled Congress's profligacy that our currency is made worth less and less. I wish the GOP was honest about smaller government.
I suspect that it is really YOUR standard of living you are worrying about, not some selfless concern for your fellow American.
My living standard is tied to the cost of goods as any other American.
if indeed you really are one.
Oh boy, already moved into baseless personal attacks. This is going downhill fast. I wish you didn't feel the need to distract from the subject of what the policies you propose would do to American's standard of living.
In any event, I would surmise you likely make your living by importing from China.
You're wrong.
I reiterate. We don't currently have free trade.
I know that, I just don't share your assumption that creating more trade barriers will make trade more free.
Trade requires that they honor and respect property rights. Newsflash: They are still communist. I bet you haven't read their "Constitution."
Does it protect property rights like our Constitution did for the citizens of New London, Connecticut? I'm honestly not interested in how their government, or any other government, treats it's citizens and observes their rights. I'd rather keep the U.S. a free place for the lovers of liberty to flee the repression in the rest of the world.
Let me distill the difference in our positions, as I see it. You think we can achieve a better standard of living for Americans by letting the U.S. government manage our trade, erecting barriers as seen fit by politicians who are flooded with money and perks by lobbyists each looking to carve advantages for themselves at the expense of 300 million American consumers. You think the communist Chinese planners who can't figure out how many shoes to make have the knowledge and foresight to properly manage their nation's production via subsidy and trade restrictions to outperform free market economies in generating wealth. You probably also confuse the number of people employed in a particular economic sector as indicative of that sector's productive capacity. You probably don't realize that manufacturing as a portion of the labor force is shrinking globally (even in China), while the amount of goods produced is increasing (particularly in the U.S.). I fear that you percieve the employment of labor as a game of musical chairs, and feel like tomorrow a chinaman might be sitting in yours. In my view the number and type of labors consumers seek are unlimited, and it is the process of the market to determine who will fill which roles and at what rates.