I understand your argument. And, right now, I’m a bit sympathetic to it. I’m willing to let Trump gave it a go and see how it works out.
But you should note a basic flaw in your argument:
Raising the cost of the goods purchased by Americans by effectively prohibiting those goods being manufactured overseas saves American jobs.
No doubt.
But it leaves less money in the pockets of all Americans. And it reduces the quantity of goods purchased. So it incrementally reduces our standard of living.
But, worst of all, it costs American jobs due to the reduction in spending power of your average consumer.
Trump is arguing that the jobs saved exceed the jobs lost. Maybe he is right but I doubt it. I’m old fashioned. I think lower taxes and less regulation will work if the government just gets out of the way.
In any case, we are going to run the experiment. I hope it turns out well.
I believe in trade between equal markets. I do not believe in trade between unequal markets. Why? Look at our nation right now and answer that for yourself. We are at least 45 million jobs upside down.
Once free trade with China had fully blossomed, the jobs market in the United States literally died. In the last 16 years, there have been very few jobs created. Traditionally numbers of jobs grew by just under 10% over each four years. In eight years, they grew by just under 20%. Under Bush’s two terms, jobs grew by 0.85%. 20% vs 0.85%.
Under Obama things remained almost as bad. The numbers of jobs created over the prior 40 years, if those trends had continued, we would have 45,000,000 more jobs in our nation.
That is an incredibly damning fact. Free trade with a nation whose wages are so much less than our own causes exactly what Ross Perot predicted. There was a great big sucking sound, jobs leaving the nation.
Let’s touch on why there was normally just under 10% job growth every four years. The reason? Young men and women coming of age. I just worked up the number of people who turn 21 each year in our contemporary setting. It’s enough that there needs to be 360,000 more jobs each month to employ them.
Every month that the Bureau of Labor and Statistics announced less than 360,000 new jobs, there are more U.S. citizens sitting idle.
Obama was pleased as punch that 160,000 new jobs were created last month. For some reason he didn’t mention that there were 200,000 new idle adult citizens in the nation. And of course the media didn’t mention it.
If you want to know why U.S. Citizens are remaining in their parent’s homes, look no further. They can’t purchase. They can’t afford a home. They can’t afford to eat out. They can’t afford to date. They can’t afford to get married and start a family. This is also why U.S. Citizens are having fewer children. Duh!
2,400,000 new idle people each year, is Obama’s legacy. In fairness, it was Bush’s legacy too. As I describe this, realize I picked numbers that we easy to add in your head, so you could follow along easily. In truth, it was worse than this.
For the last 16 years, we have under-employed each month to the tune of what has now grown to be over 45,000,000 jobs. Those people were not hired.
Capitalism and Free Trade are great things as long as they serve you well. In uneven markets the free trade end of the equation becomes destructive.
We had a bucket full of water (our economy). Someone thought it would be a fantastic idea to attach a barrel to it with a hose (China’s economy). So when the two were attached, what happened? All our water when into China’s barrel. And every month year after year, the water that came into our bucket, sailed right though into China’s barrel. China has massive employment compared to what it had. We have sacrificed our own employment for China.
We’re treading water. They are flooded with income, thriving cities, incredible improvements in infrastructure, all our patents (for free), and capital, and research and development. China now has the world’s fasted computer. Isn’t that grand.
This was the world’s most incredibly stupid move in the history of man. One nation by choice, gutted itself to spark not only a new global super-power, but it was a super-power that disagreed with us on most everything. China is our number one enemy today, and it will get far worse in short order.
Let’s look at some numbers. 45,000,000 x $30,000 is $1.35 trillion per year. That’s how much income evaporated, and is not being taxed by the IRS each year. However that’s just the primary worker’s salary. It doesn’t take into account the commerce these groups creates by spending money.
For every dollar spent, there is somewhere between 5 and 10 times more money spent by the people who sell goods and services to these people. And then they pass that along to others. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving, as the first person spends, the second spends, the third spend...
So what we are actually talking about here is anywhere from $6.75 to $13.5 trillion dollars sucked out of our economy. YEARLY!
When someone tells you you’ll spend a bit more if trade with poor nations is cut back, they don’t tell you that the nation is being gutted right now.
Yes, you will spend more. People on your very block will see their incomes go up. People will find work that couldn’t. They will spend income, and more people on your block will. Expand that out to your neighborhood, city, county, state, and nation. And every tax agency at each level will see tax receipts flourish. And that is NOT a bad thing.
It is good because it means we will have a healthy society. Our schools, libraries, police and fire, roads, and communities will be better for it.
You will not be paying higher taxes, but the tax base will expand exponentially. You live in the community. You use the resources.
What if I told you you could save a lot of my by never being able to sweep or vacuum your home, pant, spend money on upkeep, or mow your lawn? What if I told you you couldn’t purchase a new car either? You would still have the same things. Would your standard of living decline? Yes.
It works the same way in your community. You lose something when $6.75 to $13,5 trillion dollars is taken out of your neighborhood, city, county, state, and nation.
We know our infrastructure has suffered. We know why it has. We chose not to mow our lawn, paint, vacuum, spend money on upkeep or buy a new car.
We have a massive asset sitting it’s ass.
We need to pull our heads out of our own and get back to utilizing them.
Sure we need to get government out of the way. Lower taxes and implement deregulation. I’m all for it. I sure wish we could blame all this on the government. We can’t.
Some of us got too greedy. They didn’t realize there would be a cost to our neighbors, neighborhoods, communities, cities, counties, states, and federal government.
Some of us tried to tell them this is where we would wind up.
Here we are.
You completely miss the point of the effect of impact on the local economy which reflects on the national economy. If a worker has a job he spends his money in his hometown basically. The money received by the butcher, baker, candlestick maker, is spent with other local businesses and so on. ALL pay taxes which fills the coffers of the government. YOUR way suggests that the workers who can’t find jobs will still be spending money as they did before. They will be DRAINING tax money to live on in the form of government safety nets and it is a constant drain on the economy. I am old school too and learned in the real school before CommonCore that money turns over 3 to 4 times creating three to four times its basic value. THAT is why what Trump is doing is THE RIGHT THING TO DO! EVERY JOB he saves has a multiple effect on the economy.