Buy America, weaken America

usnews ^ | 3/25/06 | Richard J. Newman

[ncountylee]

The Durabrand 10-inch portable DVD player available at Wal-Mart retails for $199.94. A group of senators would like to raise the price to $254.67. The Creative Zen Nano Plus 512-megabyte MP3 player seems like a bargain at $89.72; less so at $114.39, the price the senators would prefer that you pay. The price hikes would be the result of a 27.5 percent tariff on goods imported from China, a proposal sponsored by Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Senate this week.

Schumer and Graham aren't crazy, of course—they know better than most that taking money out of voters' pockets is a sure way to be sent packing. In other words, that 27.5 percent price hike won't be coming to a retailer near you anytime soon. But as an attention-getter, it's pretty good, and attention is what the two senators, and a number of colleagues who support them, are after. The chief bogeyman they want to flog is China's communist government, which—according to Schumer and the rest—deliberately keeps its currency undervalued in order to sell more cheap imports to the United States and other countries. Reasonable economists differ on that question. The tariff, if you buy the argument, would bring prices on Chinese imports closer to their unsubsidized value, leveling the playing field for honest tradespeople in, say, New York and South Carolina, who can't possibly produce goods as cheaply as the Chinese and still earn enough wages to buy all the DVD and MP players that they need.

[A. Pole]

China has been an irresponsible power for quite awhile, now.

Please provide the examples.

[NonLinear]

Japanese investors got their clocks cleaned by falling prices for an oversupplied office & real estate market.

But, OTOH, sushi is here to stay!

[bert]

Economic patriotism is an oxymoron.

Economics is economics and patriotism is patriotism.

[monkeywrench]

Their promises to upgrade pakistanni nukes, their supplying missle (among other)tech to iran, they're propping up of north korea, their actions in sudan. Their strengthening of every current dictator that has oil or is willing to act as proxy for chicoms against our/and allies interests. Think nigeria, sudan, nepal, venezuela, cuba...

[monkeywrench]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1157468/posts

[1rudeboy]

I'm not pounding on anything. I'm simply pointing out that some "traitors" (your term) such as myself would never piss on a dead soldier's grave. And some folks who claim to be patriotic while doing so (such as yourself) are merely losers.

[NonLinear]

All your greenbacks are belong to us?

FWIW, I think it should properly be:
"All your greenback are belong to us"

[Rate_Determining_Step]

> No - protected industry is what did that. We're now squandering the national wealth we accumulated during the period when we protected our industry.

Take that Socialistic garbage to the DU where it will receive a resounding cheer.

Taxes and tariffs are organized theft. The government derives it's just power from the people. How does that apply here? Easy. I have the moral right to defend myself against violent attack. I have also delegated that power to he police. What the cops do I have the moral right to do when they're not around. Which is usually all the time. That is why you have the moral and legal authority to kill an attacker if your life is threatened.

That same thing applies to private property. Government has no moral right to take from one person to give to another. Do you have the moral right to take the money from a rich person to give it to a poor person? Then how can you delegate that power to the government?

Do YOU think you have the right to take MY money?

Molon Labe my friend.

Private property is a founding moral principle of this republic and a bedrock value of the Republican Party. That's a fact!

[buglemanster]

Most sushi restaurants in the US are owned by the Chinese.

[buglemanster]

Amen!

[hedgetrimmer]

How do you propose funding the government? The founders knew that in order to have a government, some funding mechanism had to be allowed for. The reason they chose tariffs, is that tariffs encourage domestic industry and they are optional taxes-- that is, you only pay if you buy the imported goods.

Tariffs are constitutional and fair.

[A. Pole]

Taxes and tariffs are organized theft.

So you want to abolish the government?

[RFT1]

Oh I know chnage is coming our way, but probably in the form of a liberal president and liberal congress to finish the "work" the Great Society didnt finish. People with the Limbaugh attitude are only pouring more fuel on the fire that is eating away of what made America great.

By the way, the Japanese cars built in the US provide far more to the economy of the US than US corporations having production off-shore because of the multiplier effect of having US workers.

[RFT1]

The years during WWII was during an emergency, hard to compare when there there were rations to today. Now ask yourself, in your old town, what would a $15 hr job buy today, also index medical, fuel and housing to inflation, compare what these items cost then to today of they only went up as much as inflation.

Anyways, you seem to need to understand economics a little bit more, much less political science.

[neutrino]

Economic patriotism is an oxymoron.

What a delightful sense of humor you have! Thanks for the jest.

[neutrino]

I'm simply pointing out that some "traitors" (your term) such as myself would never piss on a dead soldier's grave.

Meanwhile, your words and actions repudiate everything he sacrificed his life for.

[neutrino]

Taxes and tariffs are organized theft. The government derives it's just power from the people.

You do realize that tariffs have been in effect since early in U.S. history, do you not? Indeed:

1789 - Tariff of 1789

While looking for sources of revenue, Hamilton advocated a revenue tariff. It was passed on the fourth of July in 1789, and created duties on about 90 items that ranged from five to ten percent. Although the tariff was established as purely a revenue tariff, it led to the creation of the protective tariff in 1816.

link

So I suppose I'm in the same boat as George Washington. And you, by your words, are not.

Free trade - a fancy name for economic treason.

[Mulder]

Cheap imports have masked the true inflation rates in the US, which are running near 10%.

Inflation raises prices. Cheap overseas labor brings them down. So they sort of cancel each other out. This looks good in the short term, but the long term effects are a deindustrialized America, devalued dollar, declining real wages, and ultimately an inflationary depression.

[Nowhere Man]

Taxes and tariffs are organized theft. The government derives it's just power from the people. How does that apply here? Easy. I have the moral right to defend myself against violent attack. I have also delegated that power to he police. What the cops do I have the moral right to do when they're not around. Which is usually all the time. That is why you have the moral and legal authority to kill an attacker if your life is threatened.

Tarriffs are a Constitutional way of raising revenue. In order for you to live your life well, there has to be a government infrastructure to allow that and that means roads, defense, maintaining of law and order and so on. I think some taxes are necessary to provide those benefits for the society we do live in. No man is an island and there are times we do need to provide a means of revenue for the common good, if it all collapses, then we cannot exist as a nation but as small tribes of barbarians. There are many ways to do this and I do believe that tarriffs were one of the better ways mentioned by the Founding Fathers to do so.

[Doohickey]

Geez. Lindsey Graham is such a little weasel.