[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]

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.

[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.

[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?

[NobleFree]

Let's fix the problem for once rather than hiding it.

Let's stop the bleeding of American labor while we address the root causes.

Raising tariffs means higher prices for us

I advocate a revenue-neutral (or -decreasing) reduction of corporate and individual taxes as tariffs are raised. You on board?

[Brian Griffin]

“If we had a 15% corporate tax rate”

Corporations have plenty of money.

The Dow Jones is about 30 times higher than it was in 1982. That’s because corporations are making money like crazy.

And even if they didn’t have enough money, they could issue bonds or wait ((1-.15)/(1 -.28))-1 [18%] longer to build the factory.

They seem to have had enough money to build factories in China when they paid higher US level wages.

[Gen.Blather]

I worked for a company with one of the most advanced automated productioin families in the world. A month after we lost our biggest contract it was scrapped. The reason? The county taxed us on the original purchase value. If we could have kept it we might have made it profitable in a year or so and gone back to full employment. But no, taxes...

[PapaBear3625]

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

To start out, we should take a hard look at depreciation rules and inventory taxes. Businesses would be more likely to invest in new equipment if they could expense the equipment rather than having to depreciate it over time. Businesses should also not have to pay tax penalties for holding a reasonable amount of inventory and supplies.

[i_robot73]

>
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.
>

Spot on, but it would appear many of the replies are following in the (R)NC\GOP(e) footsteps: Nibble around the edges.

People! It is the SIZE and SCOPE of Fedzilla. Strip it of its spending, enforce the Constitution, and the corp\factories\etc. would flock back to the U.S. in a heartbeat. No more ‘”law” by fiat’ (regulations, insane tax code and % (even if kept, the rates for taxation to pay for LAWFUL govt would be PENNIES vs. today), unions, EPA, OSHA, O’Care, etc.

THEN talk about tariffs and the like.