The MAIN reason for our failure to compete in the marketplace are federally protected unions, high taxes, regulations, minimum wage, subsidies, and a weak dollar all converging to “bind and gag” American business and drive industry from our shores. Kill these mostly unconstitutional and boneheaded acts and policies and you’ve gone a long way to fixing the problem.
Easy-to-read list: END
- federally imposed suffocating HIGH TAXES and abolish so-called "CORPORATE TAXES" which are actually a hidden individual tax),
- unconstitutional federal PROTECTION OF UNIONS (why Detroit looks like a graveyard)
- unconstitutional dead-end REGULATIONS,
- unconstitutional business-and-job-killing FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE,
- unconstitutional SUBSIDES (BRIBES) FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS
- DESTABILIZING & DEVALUING THE DOLLAR.
>> The MAIN reason for our failure to compete in the marketplace are federally protected unions, high taxes, regulations, minimum wage, subsidies, and a weak dollar all converging to “bind and gag” American business and drive industry from our shores <<
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes to all that.
BUT:
Merely alleviating all those problems — so as to make the USA more competitive in the world marketplace — will not eliminate the so-called “trade deficit.”
Now to be sure, if we could fix most or all of your problems, the American economy could boom like never before. Moreover, our rate of return on invested capital would probably be the highest in the world, bar none. I’m all for those outcomes. No question about it.
On the other hand, a booming American economy and the concomittant increased profitability of American firms is likely to attract hugely increased amounts of foreign investment. Foreigners already love to invest in the USA. They’d love to invest even more over here if we could take all of the steps you suggest.
Still, as long as our domestic savings rate stays low, that new investment would just add to our existing “capital account” surplus. And if you understand the double-entry bookkeeping used in National Income statistics, you’ll know that the “merchandise trade deficit” is simply the mirror image of the capital account surplus.
Therefore, a booming economy is more likely to lead to an INCREASED merchandise trade deficit, than to a decreased deficit.
This is not theory. It’s not hypothesis or speculation. It’s not the result of some evil plot by foreign countries. It’s just a matter of the way things like “deficit” and “surplus” are defined in National Income accounting statistics.