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Just using my two favorite examples - sugar and steel - each of those tariffs kills more jobs than they save. The candy manufacture industry, once employing ~17,000 people in Chicago, is now in Canada and Mexico, thanks to sugar costing double to triple in the US compared to anywhere else in the world. The industries that use steel as a primary input lost over 200,000 jobs, compared to the total of 187,500 total jobs in the manufacture of steel.
On net, tariffs are almost always negative, and the only question is to what degree. They hurt consumers always, because they always raise prices. They typically hurt any industry associated up or downstream from the industry they are trying to protect (sugar tariff hurts candy manufacture, steel tariff hurts auto/equipment/machinery manufacture, etc). And as an added bonus, they hurt diplomacy with other nations, and we then send foreign aid to the offended nations in order to stay on the right side of the WTO and UN.
So the consumer pays more, the jobs stay same or go down, and we lose money on the deal with increased government aid. Nobody freaking wins except politicians who actually gain electoral favor from a voting base too stupid to know how bad tariffs are all the way around.
Again, welcome to the real world.
The balance is, making it worth producing here and putting our nation to work making and spending our currency in our communities, making them grow and improve.
The balance is, not going overboard as Smoot-Hawley did. Don't make it sound as if there were no tariffs in place, before Smoot-Hawley raised them too damn much... 60% tariffs, made other nations revolt. It completely stifled the need to trade. We actually had exports then, too.
The balance is, making it worth producing here and putting our nation to work making and spending our currency in our communities, making them grow and improve.
The balance is, not going overboard as Smoot-Hawley did. Don't make it sound as if there were no tariffs in place, before Smoot-Hawley raised them too damn much... 60% tariffs, made other nations revolt. It completely stifled the need to trade. We actually had exports then, too.
Ah, the mating call of socialists in the wild - "yeah, but those socialists did it wrong, and I have a plan to do it right this time!!"
Dude, since the dawn of collectivism and panem et circenses, the collectivists have been swearing that this time, their version of collectivism/socialism/welfare_statism/etc will work because oh yes, things are different this time and by god, we got this!! Never works, always fails, and the rap never changes, not even a little.
And as far as your absurd "we actually had exports then" commentary...please google "top export nations" and gain even a smidgen of real knowledge. The US is 2nd across the board (trailing China by maybe 5% total dollar volume), and we hold maybe half the world paralyzed with our agricultural export power. On a per capita basis, we are a solid number 1 without breaking a sweat. How on Earth does this equate to not exporting anything? We are simply the most productive nation on Earth. Period, the end.
Do you understand how much export power we actually have based on being the most awesomely productive agricultural nation in the history of civilization? Do realize how easily we can wreck whole national economies just based on that one industry and our total domination of same?
And once more, technology and capital investment aimed at making the nation more productive is what kills jobs, not offshoring and FDI. You want to blame someone for loss of "good paying, middle class manufacturing jobs" go yell at the robot on the GM assembly line that replaced 75% of the workforce and does their job better, faster and cheaper. There's your real cuplrit, not China, not Korea or Malaysia, but Rosie the Robot, right here in the good old USofA.
Ah, the mating call of socialists in the wild - "yeah, but those socialists did it wrong, and I have a plan to do it right this time!!"
Dude, since the dawn of collectivism and panem et circenses, the collectivists have been swearing that this time, their version of collectivism/socialism/welfare_statism/etc will work because oh yes, things are different this time and by god, we got this!! Never works, always fails, and the rap never changes, not even a little.
And as far as your absurd "we actually had exports then" commentary...please google "top export nations" and gain even a smidgen of real knowledge. The US is 2nd across the board (trailing China by maybe 5% total dollar volume), and we hold maybe half the world paralyzed with our agricultural export power. On a per capita basis, we are a solid number 1 without breaking a sweat. How on Earth does this equate to not exporting anything? We are simply the most productive nation on Earth. Period, the end.
Do you understand how much export power we actually have based on being the most awesomely productive agricultural nation in the history of civilization? Do realize how easily we can wreck whole national economies just based on that one industry and our total domination of same?
And once more, technology and capital investment aimed at making the nation more productive is what kills jobs, not offshoring and FDI. You want to blame someone for loss of "good paying, middle class manufacturing jobs" go yell at the robot on the GM assembly line that replaced 75% of the workforce and does their job better, faster and cheaper. There's your real cuplrit, not China, not Korea or Malaysia, but Rosie the Robot, right here in the good old USofA.
We had trade tariffs since the founding of this nation, voted on by congress, to keep the people of their states working and prosperous, to maintain this nations self sufficiency
We had trade tariffs since the founding of this nation, voted on by congress, to keep the people of their states working and prosperous, to maintain this nations self sufficiency
And we went from being a ramshackle backwater to being the premier industrial giant of the world.
The mechanism to keep industry here is called economic freedom.
We have very little of it, since our tax rates and the virtual tax of regulation makes staying here financially infeasible.
Economic freedom is unregulated capitalism.
The laws of capitalism state jobs will go to the countries that pay the lowest wages (this increases a business's profits.)
The laws of capitalism also state that consumers will buy the lowest cost goods (these are goods that are made in countries that pay the lowest wages.)
Economic freedom means American jobs go to Asia, and Americans buy low cost Asian goods.
Where was your computer, modem, cell phone, GPS, TV, and DVD player made?
Answer: Asia, and thats because of economic freedom.
There has got to be a mechanism to keep manufacturing jobs here. Once the heart of the middle class.
Through out our history until recently the USA and other nations had tariffs as a way to keep the economy moving along. Adjusting the tariff's as needed, to keep a balance.
Tariff's need to be, so imports are competitively priced to the consumer, in comparison to American made products. So the American manufacturing does not get undercut and go out of business.
The Smoot Hawley Tariff Act, was an example of an adjustment that got things out of balance. Raising tariffs, 3x's higher than the trade balance.
It is said, that talks in congress leading up to the Acts passing, is what cause the stock market to implode.
Economists such as Thomas Rustici have claimed that whilst international trade was only a small portion of the US economy. The trade collapse directly affected vital banking institutions and services which had a much wider knock on effect.
I believe if a country throws tariffs on our goods, we do the same to theirs.
Yes, I've always supported tariffs. They worked wonderfully historically.
The US also should bring back the anti-trust laws, purge the monopolies again.
Both these things would help the people.
But the people are stupid, and continue to believe lies. They voted for the Bushes
and Clintons instead of the Perots and Buchanans or Naders.
oh well. i gave up on it. it's just not worth paying attention to.
the vast majority of people are just too simple-minded to be free.
they are being taken advantage of. a country of sucker fools.
No. Protectionism would cause more harm than good. The costs of goods would rise and it would have a negative effect overall.
I often speak about how Switzerland has,
1.) The #1 ranked competitive economy in the world.
2.) Is ranked as the wealthiest country in the world in per capita terms.
3.) How Swiss workers average median income is $100,000 USD (and in the USA its $50,000 USD.)
4.) How everyone in Switzerland has health insurance, there is little poverty, college is free to attend, ex.ex.
I believe if a country throws tariffs on our goods, we do the same to theirs.
The jobs started going to other nations as we started dropping tariffs.
The low trickle of the crack in the damn, busted wide open with NAFTA and the China Free Trade Act. Both produced by a Progressive Globalist GOP congress and signed by a Progressive Globalist Democrat President.
In 1995 I bought my first computer. All parts made in the USA and all assembled in shop. Like ordering a car with all the options you wanted leaving those you don't want, off.
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