If the US goes down economically, so will everyone else on his planet.
While trade can be beneficial, we are seeing some consequences of unfettered trade. Entire industries have been shipped overseas.
I heard someone say that we couldn’t win World War II today. They were talking about how our nation’s industrial capacity was revamped towards war production at that time. Vacuum cleaner factories were turned into machine gun assembly plants. Car factories were turned into jeep and tank assembly factories. Clothing factories shifted to producing parachutes and clothing for the war effort. And so on.
The point being, we no longer possess the industrial base we used to have. If God forbid a World War II type conflict happened, we don’t have the industrial base any longer to produce all the materiel needed for such a war effort.
A bit too stark a projection for me. Trump can inch up on trade restrictions with China and that’s what I expect him to do. At some point, as the tourniquet tightens, one side or the other will fold.
I’m betting Trump wins.
I’ve been against free trade since about 05. Mostly for national security reasons. The human cost of free trade didn’t become apparent until later. We either rebuild our basic industrial base of this country is finished as a great power.
How many medium battle tanks did America produce in 1940? And how many medium battle tanks did America produce in 1943?
Answers: 6 in 1940 and 28,164 and 1943.
My point here is that if all trade with China is cut off, we will be hurting for a few years. Then Trump will unleash the power of American industry. Cut the red tape, reduce regulations. And then in a few more years we’ll be wondering why we bought anything made in China in the first place.
In the short term, the consequences would be hard, but there isn't anything we buy that HAS to be made in China. We can, and would sharply accelerate, building factories here. We'd lose a couple of years of trinket buying while the economy is rebalanced. We wouldn't notice so much, because we would all be at work retooling America.
USA has been globalised by our enemies. Those seeking to weaken and eventually enslave our good people.
China is not our friend.
What kind of people support buying hundreds of billion dollars worth of products from our enemies? Transferring USA factories and jobs and wealth to them? What kind of people?
Well, when we shut down all commerce with countries that do business with North Korea, we’ll see the impact from their two largest trading partners—China and India. Happy to see everything from both these countries end. And maybe we can send back all H1B and L1 visa holders while we are at it? A big win.
On economic dependence to China, many of us saw this coming and discussed it nearly 40 years ago. We worked in the last of our manufacturing jobs back then.
Enjoy the slide.
Bring back the tariffs on Chinese junk and use the revenues to buy back Federal bonds China is holding. The USA for the most part created the Chinese monster by sending our manufacturing there in the name of trade when cooperate greed was more like it.
Bring back the tariffs on Chinese junk and use the revenues to buy back Federal bonds China is holding. The USA for the most part created the Chinese monster by sending our manufacturing there in the name of trade when cooperate greed was more like it.