The harsh reality is that Europe is preparing to mirror (and boost by an extra 5%) their retaliatory tariffs. Trump is not interested in zero for zero tariffs -- it was offered by Vietnam already and rejected. Trump wants to "punish" these nations "who treated us very badly" as he demands that there be no trade deficits. Not having a trade deficit is not a good thing according to most respected economists -- there are good reasons for trade deficits to exist.
Trump should have at least evolved to the late 1700s and read The Wealth of Nations. Not that he ever reads.
But we do actually need poor people. You kept saying we needed the immigrants to pick the fruit since nobody else wants to do it. I don't blame them. So which is it though? Do you have undocumented immigrants in the country to pick fruit for cheap and do other jobs that nobody wants? Or do we try and make sure that even people doing shitty jobs can still afford the necessities of life without having to rely on government handouts? If these immigrants end up getting status, whats to stop them from just going on welfare? It probably pays better than actually picking fruit for $2-3 per hour. This is a genuine question though. If we all want the US to be successful, then we have to ensure that even the lowest jobs pay enough to survive. But it seems like letting in undocumented immigrants in order to pick fruit is no different than slave labour in China making Nike shoes. You can't support one but be against the other.
American standard of living is dependent on cheap labor here or abroad. I’m all for a lower standard of living for all to keep the brown people from the south out. I think not all children should go to school. Some should go to the fields at the age of 6. Florida is on the right track here.
Aye... I assume you are being extremely sarcastic, which is fine, but I'm also not sure how you reconcile the need for shit jobs getting done while at the same time ensuring basic needs are met for all. It sounds like you are ok with an underground market for cheap labour that the US just turns a blind eye on. Maybe this was ok until the borders were fully opened and over 10 million came in which required a shit ton of financial resources. Lets not forget that it only became very bad in the past few years where the Dems were actively encouraging people crossing over. You simply cannot support 10 million people on only make 150 million working, and this doesn't even take into account the Americans that already needed help. You haven't said one bit about the millions of dollars that cities were spending to house and feed people who didn't know the language and had no skills but just came to win the lottery.
We (Europeans) offered this to Obama a decade ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership "The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was a proposed trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States..." But then the US elected Trump... "Negotiations were halted by United States president Donald Trump,[2] who then initiated a trade conflict with the EU." He also fucked up a trade deal in the Pacific, whose main purpose was to contain China, and that was ***already signed*** (he declined to ratify it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership Anyone who thinks this is about tariffs, or free trade or balance of trade needs to wake up and smell the vodka