The Silent Economic War Being Waged Against America

Economy In Crises ^ | 7/31/16 | George Barlow

[central_va]

“Free trade” means uncontrolled, unrestricted access to our economy for foreign-made goods, tariff- and duty-free. These goods are made at wages of $4 per hour or less. We cannot compete with these wages, so we are forced to outsource nearly all of our manufacturing, sell-out to foreign interests, or simply go bankrupt.

[central_va]

Countries like China produce much of what we buy and ship it here while manipulating their currency and policies to their favor. We no longer manufacture what we need to sustain ourselves, importing much more than we export, selling our assets and taking on massive debts to sustain a standard of living we can no longer afford. While our own manufacturing sector struggles, the Chinese machine continues to grow in strength and we are paying for it in the wealth of our country, our jobs and now our health.

[Paulie]

Many of us have been yelling and screaming about this (and the borders)for 15 years, only to be ignored, mocked, or shouted down.

No more.

[central_va]

No more.

[JPJones]

“Free Trade” means the Chinese and Mexicans get jobs, factories, training, capital and wealth...while we get houses full of obsolete and/or broken electronics.

[central_va]

Talk about quality? I used to buy a microwave oven every 15 years. Now it is a bi annual event - if I get lucky.

[Alberta's Child]

I’m really curious to see what the next 12-18 months will bring here. The recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar against almost every major foreign currency will ultimately make it MORE difficult for us to compete against foreign producers.

[econjack]

Our “free trade” policies have succeeded in doing nothing more than allowing foreign countries to pick off our industries through predatory pricing, dumping and buyouts. Much of this is because as a nation we have not protected our manufacturing sector.

These are the same puerile arguments that have been made for centuries. Protective trade policies make sense with a new country trying to compete. That is not the US. Protective tariffs hide the problem; they don't fix it. The US lags because its stock of capital can't compete; it's not labor. We face the highest corporate tax rates in the world. If you want to fix the problem rather than putting lipstick on the pig, you need to let corporations invest more in their businesses and that means lower corporate tax rates and perhaps investment credits. If we had a 15% corporate tax rate, European and Pacific Rim countries would flock to build in the US, with both economic growth and higher wages as the result.

Let's fix the problem for once rather than hiding it. After all, who gets the tariff money? The very entity that did nothing to earn it: the gov't. Raising tariffs means higher prices for us, and little or no additional production or employment in the US. The only winner is the gov't, as it has more of our money to buy your votes. Think about it.

[central_va]

Not if we increase tariffs 20%.

[Alberta's Child]

Why not increase them 500%?

[central_va]

You can’t “fix” the wage disparity between the first world and the third world, well unless you impoverish the first world. Then there wouldn’t be a first world. Just elites and prols. A Communists dream. Right Komrade?

[Alberta's Child]

Great post.

I understand the push to protect industries here in the U.S. and restore production here whenever possible, but imposing tariffs does nothing but reward inefficiency and mask uncompetitive business practices.

[central_va]

I would be for a complete embargo at this point. A brief period of pain followed by unending prosperity.

[cba123]

I disagree.

But then again I do not have any minority interest in any Chinese factories turning out goods to be sent to America.

Seems to me, quite a lot of people who are advocating for “free trade” are minority holders of what were once American factories, which were sold to China.

[Alberta's Child]

You’ll never “fix” wage disparities, period — unless you impose wage controls in every industry right here in the U.S. Does that sound like something any free country should even consider?

[itsahoot]

These are the same puerile arguments that have been made for centuries.

Do you not find it disconcerting that we can not build a single weapons system in house?

[Neidermeyer]

Why not increase them 500%?
**************
Increasing tariffs from 0% to 20% is already an “infinite” percentage increase , far higher than your 500% suggestion. I for one am disgusted with the quality of goods available.. even simple things like a manual can opener are available at $1 in the dollar stores and they barely work and fail almost immediately... OR you can pay $10-$15 for a “better” one that is also made in China that works acceptably for a short while... I’ve bought 2 USA made can openers at garage and estate sales that are likely 30+ years old that work wonderfully... We can compete at the current price levels with higher quality.

[JonPreston]

Why not increase them 500%?

Because Ronald Reagan should be our new tariff template

[econjack]

You're assuming that wages determines the final price. In the US, about 2/3's of the total cost of production is due to labor costs. True, that faction is much lower in many foreign countries, but the more true measure is the capital stock to output ratio. Third World countries are implementing the latest technology in their production processes while we continue to use plants built in the 1890's. We need to allow business to modernize to improve that capital stock ratio. If they produce X units using $4/hr labor, but we produce 6X using $20/hr labor, we still win the war.

You can fix the problem...you just can't do it with protective trade policies. They only mask the problem. In the US, it calls for tax policies to fix it.

[NobleFree]

we continue to use plants built in the 1890's.

I call BS - name three.

[American in Israel]

We absolutely can compete against cheap wages, but we cannot compete against the EPA. It is one thing to place tarifs on goods entering the US quite another to place mountains of Regulations and fees and fines on your own goods.

Americans out produce any country in the world due to our good work ethic and innovative methods.

But Socialistic Slavery to Bumbling Bureaucrats never works.