Posted on 02/07/2018 9:00:48 AM PST by mac_truck
Americans are increasingly supportive of tariffs on cheap, imported goods from foreign countries to protect American industries and workers against wild globalization. In a poll by Rasmussen Reports, roughly 50 percent of Americans said the federal government should “place tariffs on goods from countries that pay very low wages to their workers,” as opposed to only 26 percent of Americans who said tariffs should not be imposed on foreign countries.
About 24 percent of Americans said they were “not sure” if the government should use tariffs to protect American industries.
Additionally, a plurality of Americans, about 44 percent, said the federal government is not doing “enough” to protect U.S. manufacturers and businesses from foreign competition” from globalization which has been exacerbated by endless multinational free trade agreements supported by the Democratic and Republican party establishments.
he support for protective tariffs has increased from two years ago, in 2015, when 47 percent of Americans polled by Rasmussen Reports said the federal government should place tariffs on foreign countries dumping cheap, imported products in the U.S.
In that 2015 poll, a plurality of Americans, about 40 percent, said free trade agreements like NAFTA and KORUS “take jobs away” from Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
There's no economic principle that says there's an advantage in export equaling imports between two particular countries. When we go to the grocery store, our imports outweigh our exports by 100%, but we're very happy with that and generally come home with what I want.
This is part of the massive confusion I was talking about. "Fairness" means coercive government interference that will result in very little fairness or freedom. But a society that puts freedom ahead of fairness will have a great deal of both.
Go back to your Marxist buddies you socialist prig.
You haven’t read what I’ve written because a lot of your answers are non sequiturs.
Read ALL of my posts on this thread CAREFULLY and try again.
Like you, Marx was in favor of Free Trade.
Right you idiot. Marxism and Communism are not about Command and Control Economics where a guy in Russia has to wait six months to buy a car.
Go back to your socialist Lefist buddies.
Marx wrote extensively and favorably about free trade and I have posted it may times but you are unable to take in new information. Your brain is defective or just old. Which is it?
If anyone other than dunderhead is following this thread, protectionism the opposite of leftist ideology BTW.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t useful to help encourage activity by productive people. “Stimulate” means “to cause,” which tariffs do not do.
We will have to agree to disagree.
While in no way some international trade genius, not that there really are any, but don’t, Unilateral Trade Deals, like the ones that the President wants to pursue, eliminate all this globalization? Or at least, drastically reduce it’s effects?
We don’t have free trade with low-wage countries. Or at least we haven’t. Trump is the first president with the cajones to make “fair” trade an issue.
The threat to U.S. sovereignty stems from perpetual maintenance of a trade imbalance that enriches the global elites.
Sounds like a dream. I doubt we can ever recapture the genie now tha t she’s escaped the bottle. Not in my lifetime, anyway
The threat to U.S. sovereignty stems from the Leftist political agenda of Global Totalitarian Government.
The threat to U.S. economic superiority stems from the $4 trillion, mostly unconstitutional federal government causing industry to fell our country because of high taxes, unconstitutional suffocating regulations, unconstitutional forced business-killing minimum wage, unconstitutional competitive-killing subsidies (bribes), and unconstitutional union protection. Tariffs fix none of those things. But doing away with those things fixes the problem allowing our industries and economy to take off, grow, and prosper mightily.
Bilateral trade deals prevent the United States from getting screwed because they're easy to unwind if the other party isn't playing fair.
Deals like TPP allow nations to gang up on the US, with each one benefiting from concessions given to another without having to do anything themselves.
Bilateral .... thanks for the correction and input!!
Anyone who's lived through the NAFTA era and has an ounce of common sense knows this is nonsense.
For example...the auto worker in Mexico doesn't pay any US taxes on his income, he doesn't patronize American businesses or otherwise spend his income in the United States.
The US auto worker who was laid off doesn't get a better job, the community he lives in suffers economically, the level of crime, welfare, and drug abuse increases, as property values and quality of life goes down.
The reason the (now) 'multi-national' auto maker moved his plant to Mexico in the first place is because "free trade" deals like NAFTA made it more profitable for him to do so.
Now, tariffs will make it less profitable, which is why Chrysler is moving manufacturing back to the United States and other auto makers are opening manufacturing facilities here.
I honestly don't care whether some pointy headed globalist pukes have to pay more for their imported cars as a result, in fact it warms my nationalist heart.
...the $4 trillion, mostly unconstitutional federal government caused that and other industries to flee our country because of high taxes, unconstitutional suffocating regulations, unconstitutional forced business-killing minimum wage, unconstitutional competitive-killing subsidies (bribes), and unconstitutional union protection. Tariffs fix none of those things. But doing away with those things fixes the problem allowing our industries and economy to take off, grow, and prosper mightily.
this is nonsense ("Tariffs penalize and are a tax on the American consumer and lower our standard of living")
You say nothing to disprove that statement and later you say in support of that statement...
I honestly don't care whether some pointy headed globalist pukes have to pay more for their imported cars as a result
The American consumer is a "pointy headed globalist puke"? With friends like you, who needs enemies?
You seem to think the only "cost" associated with the purchase of an imported product is the price you pay for it...nothing could be further from the truth.
For example...a $40,000 /yr American worker who pays $8-10,000 in government taxes, another $24-26,000 in domestic spending, and $4-6,000 in domestic savings year after year is a valuable asset who keeps communities flourishing...not a fungible commodity to be casually tossed away.
Those taxes pay for the roads, schools, public safety and hospitals in your community. The spending keeps the nail salon, ice cream parlor, movie theater, florist, karate instructor, and many others in business. The savings are used to buy a home, or fund a child's college education, all benefiting the domestic economy.
When a job goes to Mexico in search of cheap labor, all that associated domestic spending goes with it and the country suffers as a result. Tariffs ensure that employers think twice before uprooting their operations in the United States. They also level the playing field with countries (like Japan) that place barriers on American exports.
It is time to do what it takes to Make America Rich Again.
Yes, I agree if we are arguing the whole anxiety about trade deficits.
What I am arguing is that China steals our technology, uses free prison labor, doesn’t have to meet the same quality standards as US firms, ect...
Meaning by cheating they have hollowed out US manufacturing. So I argue what we have with China is NOT free trade.
Don’t disagree with your assessment. But tariffs can help encourage overseas firms it is more profitable to locate industrial activity in the U.S., as some in China are already doing.
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