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 ...
Already is a trade war, and, we’re losing badly.
Badly.
You left out convert to another currency and/or buy from someone else, like oil.
So they buy oil - what do the people that sold it to them do with those dollars?
Yes, those dollars can slosh around for a while, but eventually they either come back here or they get stored somewhere as reserve currency.
Either way is a win for us. If they come back to the US, well it helps the economy here. If they decide to store them under a mattress, we will have gotten goods in exchange for some pieces papers whose future value is not guaranteed.
All that money is going to go into the real estate market and balloon up prices so high that the average American will be a lifetime renter.
But think of all those americans that will make a killing selling it to them. Also all those construction companies and workers that will make a bundle building new houses.
And what are you doing to take advantage of your prediction? You should be out there looking for houses to buy before the chinese get here in force instead of typing on a key board. Don’t you want to get rich?
It isn’t about me. The bottom 50% are going to suffer. And become more socialist. Which us the Marxist plan.
No I don’t want to get rich. I don’t want to be poor either. Like most Americans I don’t want to live my whole life pursuing getting rich. I just want a balanced work/home life and not be put in direct competition with 3rd worlders for wages. I want to enjoy the fruits of my labors and live a decent life. If asked I will defend my country. All I ask is not to be income taxed to death and for the West to not commit suicide by immigration. It should not be a choice between being rich or poor, there used to be a middle class in the USA. Is that asking too much?
So let’s see, you complain about the chinese not buying enough american stuff, but when they come here and buy american stuff, you’re still not happy.
BTW I bet anything that Americans own more chinese assets, companies, RE, etc. than chinese own american assets.
Yes I thing Americans should own Americans real estate.
“Is that asking too much?”
Apparently so. I appreciate your yearnings, but for better or worse the world is very dynamic. There is no steady-state. We’ve been lucky, in that the US has actually been more constant than most other countries. The best you can do is determine what your interests are and fight for them anyway you can, individually or in a group
Whether one likes it or not, life is a tug of war among the various interest groups. One has to decide which group better represents his interest and help with the pulling.
Sitting back and watching may only get you trampled. In the game of politics everybody is a participant, willing or not.
It’s taken to mean that we export more than we import. But from the point of view of our well-being, that’s an unfavorable balance.
No it isn't.
That means we’re sending out more goods and getting fewer in.
That's good. We're producing more and getting money for goods we make.
Each of you in your private household would know better than that. You don’t regard it as a favorable balance when you have to send out more goods to get less coming in. It’s favorable when you can get more by sending out less."
Apples and oranges, or more precisely, Alice in Wonderland. A household is not a cottage industry. The person brings in money (earned by making things here) and spends it on stuff, either made here or elsewhere.
On the other hand, the goods and services we import, they provide us with TV sets we can watch, automobiles we can drive, with all sorts of nice things for us to use.
And those items can be made here as well, employing the citizenry. You can't buy much it you don't have a job, or have one at a subsistence wage.
A lot of it goes into China's military, space program, and infrastructure, instead of ours.
Our unemployed people are productive and they turn to a life of crime or welfare, or both. We instead make these people, and all others, choose to only buy Chinese-made goods because they are the cheapest, further putting more Americans out of work and causing more products to be purchased from China, further increasing welfare and crime, causing more people to only buy Chinese-made goods because they are the cheapest, further increasing welfare and crime...
I think you get it, now.
Now, if we could at least ban welfare and criminals from purchasing non-US-made goods (like food stamps once couldn't be used on soda pop), then at least welfare recipients and criminals couldn't directly help support the destructive cycle.
Back when Reagan was President, liberactionaries were hopping made about trade deficits. They forgot about them during Clinton’s tenure, were too distracted by Iraq to bring it up during Bush’s Presidency, and were completely mum during Obama’s. Now that trade is Trump’s great concern, they downplay it and talk about the complexity of the global economy and the rise of service industries.
I don’t share Trump’s stress on trade, and frankly I’d rather a company move to Mexico than that it go completely under and close its doors, but it is a legitimate concern.
The Forgottens (a/k/a the structurally unemployed) need to find jobs they can do, not high-tech computer whosawhatsit-thingamajigging. So, yeah, this is a matter that the Republicans have belatedly woken up to, thanks to Trump, and concerning which Dems have belatedly discovered nuances that help nobody, except insofar as they can cover their own asses. Hope the working class blue color folks all find work, and that they make their switch to deplorables permanent.
“blue color” = blue collar
Please post an example of a company the was "going under" and moving to Mexico saved them. Just one.
Big Caps are moving to Mexico to save 3-5% on labor and pocketing the difference. When they were in the USA the made gobs of money, now they make EVEN more. The tax payer is on the hook for the damage caused.
A 20% tariff ruins the plans of the globalists to tame the US citizen and turn them into accepting 3rd world status. A simple effective and pro American solution.
Having jobs in our country has to be better than having those jobs move to another country.
You get the actual manufacturing jobs, you get the supply chain jobs sending supplies to that manufacturer, you get all the transport jobs involving both manufacturer and supplier and purchaser, you get warehousing jobs, you get end retailer jobs.
Nothing like that when goods are shipped in from overseas.
Good post.
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