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Could you explain in a little more detail what you mean by that?
That concept isn't immediately clear to me. I think I might know what you mean, but I'm not sure.
Milton Friedman:
Quote:
Another fallacy seldom contradicted is that exports are good, imports bad. The
truth is very different. We cannot eat, wear, or enjoy the goods we send abroad.
We eat bananas from Central America, wear Italian shoes, drive German
automobiles, and enjoy programs we see on our Japanese TV sets. Our gain from
foreign trade is what we import. Exports are the price we pay to get imports. As
Adam Smith saw so clearly, the citizens of a nation benefit from getting as
large a volume of imports as possible in return for its exports or,
equivalently, from exporting as little as possible to pay for its imports.
How much more are you willing to pay for made in the USA?
How many US businesses would fail if big bad government took action to make international trade more costly..
I'm willing to pay more...even a lot more if the quality justifies it. I'm getting tired of buying the same products over and over for cheap because they fall apart.
We evolved past manufacturing to consumption. China will do the same as they advance their own people and society this next generation. It is inevitable for a successful nation.
Imports are the real gain, not exports. Exports are a drain on resources and environment. But the next problem of course is where to employ people left adrift from these transitions.
Huh? Germany and Switzerland are net exporting nations. Their ressources aren't drained, neither is their environment.
I'm willing to pay more...even a lot more if the quality justifies it. I'm getting tired of buying the same products over and over for cheap because they fall apart.
Lots of Americans feel the same way.
Yup but we have become a throw-away society and have become complacent to things breaking quite often.
The younger crowd don't want to keep things for 10+ years..they want new and upgrades more frequently then older generations.
If in the fairy tale world the US ceased to import from China, China could be expected to cease importing from the US. P
That was not the point of my post.
The point was to show that China is not totally dependent on the US for either export or import.
China has spread out over the years.
That's what I thought he meant, and I'm not so sure I agree with Friedman's assertion.
The major argument against liberalized trade today centers around loss of manufacturing jobs.
Milton Friedman, from the same article I quoted earlier; The Case for Free Trade:
Quote:
One voice that is hardly ever raised is the consumer's. That voice is drowned
out in the cacophony of the "interested sophistry of merchants and
manufacturers" and their employees. The result is a serious distortion of the
issue. For example, the supporters of tariffs treat it as self evident
that the creation of jobs is a desirable end, in and of itself, regardless of
what the persons employed do. That is clearly wrong. If all we want are jobs, we
can create any number--for example, have people dig holes and then fill them up
again or perform other useless tasks. Work is sometimes its own reward.
Mostly, however, it is the price we pay to get the things we want. Our real
objective is not just jobs but productive jobs--jobs that will mean more goods
and services to consume.
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