Put Glass-Steagall back in effect and require all foreign banks to play by our rules to have access to our market, rather than letting our banks play by their rules to have access to theirs.
Well, speaking as someone who for many years has contemplated creating a small manufacturing business (and the jobs that would in turn create), but has always decided against doing so, please consider the following.
First, your suggestions do not address the main reasons I choose “no”. I decline because I have watched (and in one case participated in as a fairly high level employee) other businesses with far more resources than I could attain in a reasonable time frame be literally strangled by excessive gov’t regulations and oversight, litigation & other legal costs (no matter how conscientious and diligent the owners / managers were). Add in taxes & related costs. This doesn’t even address the “headache factor”. And it does not fully address the fact that IF I am successful, most of what I’ve earned will be taken away. At some point, unless one is young and can create a great deal of success in a short time frame, it is not worth it. We have gone well past that point, IMHO.
Now as for tariffs, I am generally inclined to say that if the above things did not so tilt the playing field, tariffs would be a minor issue at most. If the playing field were remotely level regarding taxes, litigation, regulations, and such, and if intellectual property was properly protected, then let others do what they are efficient at, and I’ll use my good ‘ol American ingenuity to find an area where I can excel. With a few exceptions, my view is that high tariffs do not level the playing field, they twist it. Usually this is to the disadvantage of the consumer.
Turning to in my own case, if I did start my mfg. business, higher import tariffs would destroy any chance of my success. The vendors I would depend on no longer exist in the U.S., and they are not coming back, either. Not for a small start up, or even a bunch of small start ups, given the present business climate as described above. This is true in area after area after area...
Now, if you want to increase tariffs by, say, 5%, and use that money to greatly step up incoming inspections, investigations of whether foreign suppliers are gross polluters, and so on, I’d go along with some of that.
Turning to the requirement that all military parts be made in the U.S., that sounds good, but again it is not efficient. Perhaps it should apply to final assemblies, and certainly it should apply if there are immediate security concerns, where we literally need to keep a secret or an advantage. However, in general I think it would be better to simply require military vendors to guarantee deliveries for some time well into the future. If it is determined at any point that they cannot, they will be parachuted with life preservers and short knives into shark infested waters 200 miles from land. I would add that supplies and sources of certain rare materials and such should be maintained as “essential” National Security assets. Possibly in rare cases they would need to be specified or even subsidized to maintain U.S. production. Neodymium, as in neodymium magnets, comes to mind. However, this is a detail. One size fits all regulations usually do more harm than good.
Close the border? Well, that depends on exactly what you mean, but in terms of stopping illegals, reducing the demand for their services here (jobs), and reducing the other incentives for them to come here (ie., gov’t benefits), would be more effective. Deport the illegals? Same thing. Deprive them of income & benefits, and they will leave, for the most part. Set up positive citizen and legal alien identification and truly severe penalties for employers who employ illegals, and I.D. counterfeiters: After a few “examples” the employment side of the problem will fix itself.
H-1b’s? We may no longer be a country who wants to draw the “poor and huddled masses”, but we WANT the best and brightest from other countries to come here. Give them incentives to stay, too. They are a powerful asset. Get this U.S. economy on track, and an excess of H-1b visas will cease to be a problem.
Glass-Steagall? Perhaps, but I would like to see a serious debate from both sides on these pages.
You got my vote.