Interesting post. I’ve always had a hard time understanding why Americans paying higher taxes would somehow ‘get even’ with foreign morons that overtaxed their people.
No, he’s wrong.
Every nation needs a robust employment situation for it’s people.
A person can earn enough to live on by investing their capital if they have enough capital. Or they can earn enough to live on through some kind of work.
Those with no assets and no earnings are a burden on those who have assets or earnings.
The unemployed may get checks from the government, or they may live with someone else for free.
Either way, someone besides themselves is forking over money - that they earned and paid taxes on - to pay for those who are not earning enough to support themselves.
In a robust employment situation, where there is plenty of demand for labor, the number of people who can’t earn enough to support themselves is minimized, therefore the burden on everyone who earns is minimized.
“No one wins a trade war. Ever.” Not true.
Another expression for trade war is “protectionism”.
America is a very big market, so lots of corporations want to sell goods here. But they don’t make the goods here because it is more expensive than outsourcing production. Because they pay less for production, the prices of the goods here are lower. So consumers benefit.
However, if outsourcing becomes too great, consumer prices might be low, but unemployment is high, because there are no production jobs here. So this is where protectionism comes into play.
It says to corporations: “Right now you outsource, and sell your product in the US for $10 a unit. But if we erect a trade barrier, it will drive the price of an imported unit up to $20 a unit. Yet if you pay more for production by making it here instead of importing it, you will be able to sell it for $15 a unit. Thus making it worth your while to pay higher production costs by employing our citizens.”
Well, the downside is that consumers now have to pay $15 a unit. But the upside is that there are now more employed people who can buy units. And employed people also take less government benefits and pay taxes, which also reduces the load on everyone else.
The bottom line is that the US has gone way overboard with free trade, and while it has immensely profited other nations, and our consumers, it has gone too far and needs to be cut back so that there is a more even balance of trade.