The term trade deficit is a Marxist class warfare term. It is meant to create just the kind of foolishness we are arguing about here.
You cannot have a trade deficit. By definition any trade without coercion is beneficial to both parties.
My “trade deficit” with my grocer, car dealer and local hotdog stand are enormous. Those jerks never bought a thing from me, but I am happy and so are they.
We is the loss. Let’s keep ‘splaining it to them, OK?
I’ve found the econ threads on FR to be amusing for over a decade. It never lets up. Big Government conservatives are an interesting breed (and I’m out in the scrub watching with binoculars).
Seems pretty simple, doesn't it? I've wasted my breath here for years trying to explain the current account, the capital account and the balance of payments. The protectionists run and hide when you show them that our manufacturing, employment and GDP historically increase the most when the so called trade deficit is expanding the fastest. We experience "trade surpluses" when we're in recessions.
But really, the bottom line rests with the morality of free trade. Free people should be allowed to trade freely with whom they choose as long as no laws are broken. If they didn't both benefit they wouldn't execute the trade. If you don't believe in an individual's right to trade then you must believe that government bureaucrats are better equipped to determine what's in the individual's best interest; and that when it comes to trade, all of a sudden the fedgov becomes responsible, capable and reliable. Protectionists believe bigger government is the answer. Just like Reagan, right?
If schools would simply require everyone take and pass basic economics we wouldn't have to keep 'splaining it to them. But I'll keep trying.
You forgot to include the trade surplus that you have with your employer. And if you do include that, and your net "trade" account is still in deficit, then you are spending more than you are earning and consuming more than you are producing.
Unless you are sufficiently wealthy to die before spending down or selling off all of your assets, good luck with that.