The engagement of buyers and sellers for their own self interest on the open, free market works to the extent our government doesn’t interfere. Buyers will ALWAYS look for the best quality at the lowest price. Sellers on the competitive market are ALWAYS driven to offer the highest quality for the lowest price to gain market share. That is how the world goes ‘round and how the free market brings high standards of living.
The only reason it works less these days is because of government interference.
No, you do not seem to want to listen. Your model is too simplistic. You cite ONE factor (or group of factors). It IS a biggie. We all agree it must be corrected. But there are other factors, or a bunch of these really socialist countries would not ALSO be thumping us. How do you explain THEM?
Going back to China, just one example — I’ve spent too much time here today, already — of “other factors”: Free trade is not free trade when one’s trade “partner” steals one’s intellectual property! Going back to my “widgets”, if China steals my design for “Widget A”, I might, at great trouble and cost, be able to get importation of “A” effectively blocked. But I am screwed on selling “A” into China because THEY have tariffs, regulations, etc., to make that difficult, in addition to their lower domestic price to begin with. Meanwhile, at home, MY product probably got a bad rap because the clones that were made with MY freaking logo and a “Made in USA” sticker on them failed regularly. A few months later, better quality Chinese copies that are not quite such obvious clones show up (they are quite clever at this) or are available from some new distributor.
How the heck do I compete with that? How do I compete with currency manipulation, or lopsided tariffs and regulations in a country I would like to export to? (I can go on and on.)
What do you tell my ex-employees?