Posted on 02/07/2017 8:14:36 AM PST by xzins
The United States ran a merchandise trade deficit of $734,316,300,000 in 2016, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.
During 2016, the U.S. imported $2,188,940,500,000 in goods but exported only $1,454,624,200,000.
The People’s Republic of China was the greatest contributor to the U.S. merchandise trade deficit for the year. The U.S bilateral merchandise trade deficit with China was $347,037,900,000. This deficit resulted from the U.S. importing $462,813,000,000 in goods from China while exporting only $115,775,100,00 in goods to China.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
I’m sure they also buy billions of US companies stocks.
How quickly we forget that we were rebuilding from two hurricanes, and at the tail end of the housing boom to boot.
(Our gypsum wallboard plants were running at full capacity, and no wallboard manufacturer enjoys spending upwards of $1B on a new plant that sits idle 3-4 months/year).
“Please tell us, oh wise one.”
Glad you recognize wisdom when you see it. :-)
True Chinese labor doesn’t pay US taxes. Instead what it does is buys US debt called treasuries, which pays for the budget deficits.
The Chinese hold over a trillion dollars in interest bearing US T-bills.
Are you also willing to force me to do the same. Do you know better than I do what last longer and what's best for my family?
This has got to stop.
That's free trade. You just finance the difference with a mortgage on your house. What's the problem?
I don’t think Friedman had in mind that the difference would be made up by a huge mortgage on our country, that their kids would be educated at the expense of our kids, that they would get property, houses, etc. at the expense of Americans.
>>Most goods are only 5-8% cheaper made in China<<
How do we know for certain? When Walmart is primarily the only game in town, how do you know it the every day low low price?
They set the price. Juss aksin
Which we could buy ourselves, if we had the money.
I will say we are well off to have other countries buy our debt.
So I extrapolate from that figure. Take a toaster oven. The man-hours to make one is probably 1 man-hour(if that) So if Wal Mart sells a Chines made oven for $50.00 then a USA made one would be about 8% more or $4.00 more. So I would pay $54.00 for the same oven made in the USA. I think it would be worth it. At least to me.
Half the deficit was with China.
Removal of barriers to imports would solve some of the China problems. It has high tariffs on certain products or even outright bans. Japan has the same problem.
So now we are exporting dollars for the most part.
That isn’t Friedman’s point. His point is that if you sell three apples and get back ten lemons you are better off that if you sell three apples and get back eight lemons. He is talking about the terms of trade in a free market not necessarily in state managed trade.
“Please tell us, oh wise one. Oh, and no country has “free trade” with any other country, today.”
There never was free trade, it is an ideal state not an actual one. Trade was protected by fleets and armies not economic logic.
Yep. They practically own Miami, Las Vegas, LA and British Columbia.
That Friedman quote makes sense in feudal Russia where the serfs were forced to grow food for the nobles to sell to someone else with the serfs gaining no advantage and not enough to eat. In a modern economy we're depriving ourselves of nothing due to exports. Are we all driving 40 year old cars because American auto companies want to sell some overseas? Are we going hungry because other countries buy our wheat?
“I will say we are well off to have other countries buy our debt.”
And most of that money that they give back when they buy treasuries goes to pay benefits for our people that don’t work. (Welfare, food stamps, housing, medical, etc)
So to summarize, we can boil down the deal we have with the chinese as follows... Chinese people work to allow many of our people to not work and they also provide our non-working people with enough benefits to live better than the chinese that are working! On top of that we get lots of inexpensive products.
Sounds like a great deal . It’s like having the cake and eating it too. What am I missing?
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