Free trade is a glorious thing. Move the factories to China, Mexico and other third world nations. Incomes decline in the USA and rise in other nations.
The free traders have enjoyed their 20 years experiment and it has been a disaster for the American middle class and the economy. Until this nation begins producing again, we will continue evolving into a third world socialist hell hole.
Let’s bring back the tariffs and quotas that existed during the 1980’s when the US economy was growing and the strongest in the world. Eliminate the corporate tax on products manufactured in America. You will see investment flow back into this country and an economic boom that will employ millions in middle class manufacturing jobs and jobs that support a revitalized manufacturing infrastructure.
All of the history lessons about the Smoot Hawley tariff causing the Great Depression of the 1930’s are bunk taught to us by the globalists to further their ends. The facts are, Smooth Hawley was passed after the 1929 crash. At the time Smoot Hawley was passed in 1930, exports of manufactured goods comprised less than 2% of GDP. Between the 1929 crash and the depth of the Depression in 1932, GDP declined 40% and manufacturing declined roughly the same 40%. Even if the US lost 100% of its manufacturing exports during that time, it would explain only 2% of the drop of over 40% of GDP.
More historical facts. The US became a mighty industrial power in the period between 1865 and 1900. This was a period of high tariffs. These tariffs funded almost the entire federal government and served to protect the development of American industry from European competition. The 1950’s also saw economic prosperity built on a manufacturing economy. China today is booming based on a manufacturing economy.
The high tech service economy dream of academics, multinational corporations, and politicians has been a disaster for the middle class and the economy strength of the nation. Look at the countries whose economic fortunes are rising today (China, India, Vietnam, Brazil) and you will see nations taking advantage of the wide open US free market while aggressively pursuing mercantilistic policies to protect their own markets.
We can choose to pursue economic policies that further the interests of our nation or we can continue to deindustrialize until our citizens live in poverty and our industrial infrastructure is no more.
Economic warfare is as deadly to a nation as a war with bullets and bombs. It just takes longer to play out. For 20 years we’ve been fighting a war to the death with our hands tied behind our backs while our enemies picked off the best fruits of our former prosperity. The recent announcement that GE is moving its medical imaging business to China should be a huge wake up call for this nation. Economically this news is as big as the attack on Pearl Harbor or the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, it seems to have been met with a big yawn by our elites.
Amen. But all you’ll hear is “lower taxes and less regulation” and employers will come back. But the truth is, if wages are lower somewhere else, and you can import your products cheaply, that somewhere else is where the jobs will go.
Man, tariffs work great! Yet another taxation layer.
How about we cut the size of the government rather then giving it, yet another revenue stream?