If I save $2,000 buying a car made with cheaper steel imported from South Korea vs. more expensive steel made in the US, why is that bad for me? I can now take that $2,000 I saved and invest it in an education IRA so my kids can afford to go to college someday. Do you want the government to force me to pay more for the car so I don't have the money to invest in my kids college fund?
If a family saves $100.00 buying an imported DVD player rather than a more expensive one made domestically and they use that money to buy their kids more clothes or books or a trip to the dentist that wouldn't otherwise happen, why is that bad for them or bad for the country?
If a working class family saves $100 a month buying their food, clothes and other necessities from Wal-Mart and invests that money so they can someday buy a house, how and why is that bad for them or the country?
If the trade deficit is bad maybe you can show us where in our economy it's causing bad things to happen. We've had a trade deficit since 1975 and our economy keeps growing, our employment keeps growing, our incomes keep growing and our household wealth keeps growing. Don't you think it's amazing the rest of the world is jealous of our economy even though we have such a large trade deficit?
Sowell, unlike Williams, probably doesn't see the need to keep repeating the obvious.
If a family saves $100.00 buying an imported DVD player rather than a more expensive one made domestically and they use that money to buy their kids more clothes or books or a trip to the dentist that wouldn't otherwise happen, why is that bad for them or bad for the country?
Your post refers to family household economics so how about this -- You are a bullshitter until you show me that you and your family are deep in debt. I want to know if you have a problem with debt in your own life since you have proclaimed our trade deficits are actually a positive factor because they mean more foreign investments here.
So how deep in debt are you? In debt you plan to never pay back. Unlike a house for example. Just about everyone plans to pay back their mortgage loan
BTW I have no debt. So what's the deal for you?. `
"If I save $2,000 buying a car made with cheaper steel imported from South Korea vs. more expensive steel made in the US, why is that bad for me?
First of all, the majority of the cost of an automobile is not the materials; it is the labor, marketing, transport, and reseacrh and development costs. Not to mention the taxes and the built-in cost of the warranty you will inevitibly demand, and which GM or Ford is almost-required to provide. The profit margin on an automobile is not as high as you seem to think it is.
Secondly, why is bad for you? Simple: your next-door neighbor, the steel-mill worker, didn't get a piece of the price of your automobile, so he lost his job. Since he can't pay his bills, he has now lost his house. Now thatthe bank has a house that it expected to get a mortgage on for the next 20 years is now not getting it, it now owns a piece of property that it has to pay someone else to sell for it. Of course, the bank alos made an investment someplace basedon the assumption that you would always pay your mortgage, since you no longer can't, the bank has to make fewer investments in order to meet it's daily operating expenses. In order to do that, a teller has to be laid off. Now that the teller is out of work, she can't afford her car payment. SInce GM won't be getting the payment, an automworker now has to be laid off, and so on, and so on.
"I can now take that $2,000 I saved and invest it in an education IRA so my kids can afford to go to college someday. "
Nothing wrong with this at all. It's probably the best investment you can ever make, because education (once it's been received) can never be taken away, taxed or lost and never, ever loses it's intrinsic value. It's a better investment than gold, if you ask me. However, since colleges are saddled with the same sorts of expense that force business to ship jobs overseas, bear in mind that the cost of that education will also continue to spiral upwards. Just today I've read that the City of New York runs an online-tutoring program for students...with the tutors in India. Wanna know what a NYC school teacher make sin tehir first year? $39,000, beofe you add in the cost of benefits (supplied by the tax payers) ad the fact that it's impossible to fire an incompetent teacher. It's easier to split atoms with common, household utensils and baking soda. Perhaps, when your kids are ready for college, their education will be provided by foreigners living on the other side of the planet making less per week than your paperboy.
" If a family saves $100.00 buying an imported DVD player rather than a more expensive one made domestically and they use that money to buy their kids more clothes or books or a trip to the dentist that wouldn't otherwise happen, why is that bad for them or bad for the country?"
Well, it's your choice to buy a DVD player. It is not a necessity. Enjoy it. However, because you didn't buy American (assuming an American DVD player was on the market), they guy who makes American DVD players just lost out on his paycheck (see above).
"If a working class family saves $100 a month buying their food, clothes and other necessities from Wal-Mart and invests that money so they can someday buy a house, how and why is that bad for them or the country?"
Because the money you did spend at Wal-Mart went to purchase goods made in a foreign country, at a fraction of the production and labor cost or a similar product made domestically, and furthermore, went to a country (China) which has nuclear missiles pointed at you, finances it's arms industry with your dollars, frustrates your country politically, diplomatically and economically, disregards just about every treaty related to fair trade as it sees fit, and which will eventually compete with you for jobs, energy and natural resources.
I hope you can parlay $100 a month into a house, but there probably won't be anyplace to build it or anything to build it with, and if there were, the workers who put it up will more than likely speak Spanish, outvote you and live off the sweat of your brow thanks to a vast array of American welfare programs.
"If the trade deficit is bad maybe you can show us where in our economy it's causing bad things to happen. We've had a trade deficit since 1975 and our economy keeps growing, our employment keeps growing, our incomes keep growing and our household wealth keeps growing. Don't you think it's amazing the rest of the world is jealous of our economy even though we have such a large trade deficit?"
As of this moment, approximately 80% if US debt is held by about 15 or so nations. Amongst these are Saudi Arabia, China, and the various states of the European Union. These are the future economic rivals of the United States with the potential to bury us (except the Saudis, who merely hold us by the pubic arch becaue they control the energy our economy runs on). When that debt comes due, we must pay up. Failure ot do so undermines faith in the American dollar and American economic system, a loss of faith that will destroy wealth like logic destroys a democrat.
Currently, these countries are more than happy to continue to finance this debt because it makes them money. In the future, should their attitudes change, it is a noose around our necks (as Lenin once said, "The Capitalists will sell us the rope we will hang them with"); they stop buying debt, we have to start paying it off ourselves, taking money OUT of the economy. We are, since 1975, playing with house money. Someday, that marker is going to come due and with 50% of your tax money going to finance social security and the rest is funding Viagra for the 60's set, "Hunchback Latina Dwarfs in American Literature" museums, or bridges to nowhere, you have to wonder just from what source that potential shortfall is going to be made up.
When those bills come due, I wouldn't expect to retire at all, if I were you.