The answer to our jobs problem is simple...

[tobnpr]

Some things aren't rocket science. In order to have competition, you need to have a level playing field. I've always thought that we should tax the sh** out of the cheap chinese imports...and get back to being a country with an economy that actually produces something.

Regardless of personal opinions of D. Trump, I honestly believe it IS this simple.

Made in the USA. Purchased in the USA. No business can compete in an industry where the costs of production as skewed as ours are with the Chinese.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4142359/trump-china-thinks-were-stupid

 

[SCORPIO]

Its not just manufactured goods, this applies to your food too. China is now the leading producer of Apples in the world. They spray who knows what on them and will be sending them here in the very near future. BTW you won't see most of these apples on the supermarket shelf, they will be in the form of juice concentrates. Apple Juice Concentrate (AJC) is used in so many products its not possible to list them all here. A few examples include, baby food, fruit juices (not just apple juice) it is a very benign juice and is added to other to cheaply stretch them, raspberry vinegrette sald dressing, vinegar and the list goes on and on. Chineese AJC is here now and will dramatically increase in use as it costs about half of domestically produced AJC. Compainies will buy Chineese AJC due to the cost savings and pocket the profits at the expense of domestic agriculture.
China will also be exporting other ag products to the US as they have 3/4 of a million acres of newly irrigated land (thanks to the three gorges dam) and the primary target of those exports is the US. We cannot compete with both hands tied behind our backs.

 

[comsnark]

Heh. This should be a good debate.

So: You are ok if other countries impose tarrifs on beef and wheat that the U.S. exports?

So: You are ok with paying more on clothing, building goods, cars, consumer electronics because you have to pay U.S. labor costs and not chinese labor costs?

It is an interesting topic. Trade off is obstensively between (1) Having a job to get money to buy things, but they are unaffordable (2) Not having a job and not having enough money to buy cheap things . . .

 

[tdschafer]

Well Comsnark you jumped in quickly!!:grin:
This is a good debate but again domestic policy is not that simple. The Chinese are bank rolling our deficit that we like to run our nation on. Pi$$ them off enough with tariffs etc, and watch them start calling in their notes!! Can you say B-A-N-K-R-U-P-T??? It all starts with a balanced budget and paying DOWN the deficit. Once it's low enough you can "kick them in the Jimmy" if you wish! Between that and developing significant alternate energy sources you could tell the Saudies to go "Pi$$ off " too!!
Then national policy would be dictated more by what's better for our nation and not by who we have to blow to maintain our energy demands and poor financial policies!! Of course there are always going to be the lobbyists to deal with that will try and derail returning our country to it's past glory while pursuing the fulfillment of their own greedy interests!!
Todd

 

[MonacoMike]

Tariffs have been tried so many times throughout history and NEVER benefit all. Governments and politicians use tariffs to gain power and favor not benefit all.

Take our steel protectionism of the past, politicians who did this will brag about jobs saved, while thousands of jobs are lost by industries that are no longer able to competitively export their products to the world because of higher steel costs. This makes them unable to compete with foreign companies with cheaper steel costs. These are also manufacturing jobs with good wages that are lost indirectly while saving a few jobs directly.

The same happened with sugar when the sugar lobby got protectionism. We lost almost all of our candy exports. A category we once were a leader in. This is also why government subsidized corn syrup sweetens your food and drinks instead of competitively priced sugar.

These tariffs do not function in a vacuum by themselves they are more like a rock thrown in a lake. They create ripples throughout.

MM