Amazing that some will stand up and argue that if only we take away consumer choices and with it take away the ability for the consumer to pick the best value we will be better off. "If only we had more government (restrictions on our freedoms) our country would be better" The only thing that could maybe top the trade restriction ignorance is to say that the US auto makers would be making higher quality cars if only the competition was not here to deal with.
I never said, implied nor even hinted that I thought trade barriers were good. How did you draw that ridiculous conclusion?
Well, yes.. they MIGHT... but the statement as it stands IS ignorant. Who said that? There are 2 related truths to that idea, however: 1. Because of competition, US auto producers must either (a) charge higher prices, or (b) make inferior goods. 2. If it were NOT for the competition, there would be stronger unions and their members would make more money.
Isn't "outsource uncompetitive jobs" an oxymoron? The US attained great wealth when it was an EXPORT nation. Today it is an IMPORT nation because of TRADE POLICY. If we keep importing all this shit from Asia we are destined for financial failure. Argue that one brainiac.
Not precisely stated... American makers do not HAVE to charge higher prices, of course. But they WILL have higher prices for equal quality or inferior quality for equal prices.
How about a third one: Foreign automakers have no union costs - it cost less for them to build a car on a plant in rural Alabama right next to the same GM plant 2 miles down the road. The same plant, built by the same contractors, equipped by the same companies, parts made by the same suppliers, paying the same wages. The only difference is union and pension liabilities. Foreign countries (e.g. Japan) destroyed all manufacturing in the midwest as well as ruined auto manufacturing. Foreign countries (e.g. India) destroyed all IT across US. What's next.
Ok, Simple. I do not agree. I do not think the US automakers would make better cars if consumer choice is taken away. I do not believe less competition = better products. It appears you do and your free to think that way. I would agree with you that if you have government restrictions put on the consumer that the union members will make more money at least in the short run. Kinda sucks in my opinion for the consumer who is forced to buy something that they would otherwise feel is a lessor value. Help me out and show me an example of a product that has become a better value and improved from less competition? Every product I can think of that has had increased competition has became better??
Its not importing that is the problem. Its that we do not export as much or more. Things like our welfare state, min wage, govt paperwork requirements up the butt, govt restrictions (not in my backyard etcc....) make for an environment that is not business friendly. It was not government restrictions and regulations taking away consumer consumer choices that made this country great. The free market will do its magic if we would allow it. Sadly we no longer do in so many ways.
And you think you can turn a net import nation into a net export nation by simply shutting down the borders one way? Great wealth is achieved when a company, an industry, a region or a nation can produce something more technically advanced, safer, healthier, tastier, cheaper or otherwise better than others. You can't export unless you have a competitive advantage on a global scale. How will imposing tariffs make currently existing inferior US jobs and US products competitive on world markets? I will say it again, since it doesn't see be to understood by you. By importing stuff from Asia, Americans will not have to waste their precious time by sewing T-Shirts and sneakers or producing plastic toys for children and planting soy beans. Americans instead can spend more time developing higher complexity products such as Hollywood movies, jet airplanes, iPhones or (cough) collaterized debt obligations. Stuff that can not (yet) be made in Asia. And once it eventually is made cheaper and better in Asia, Americans will have to move somewhere else. Maybe green energy technology? Maybe nano technology? Mobile computing and entertainment? We can only guess but that's how the game is played. Don't like it? Leave: I hear Venezuela is happy to accept immigrants. All Venezuelans are perfectly shielded from the evil world of international competition and trade. And I can guarantee you their children will be worse off in 30 years than their parents are today. If your underlying theory was correct, Americans could still be producing leather shoes (now made in South America or Asia), or low-priced furniture (now China) or sewing T-Shirts (now in Vietnam) simply by blocking others to import them into the US, and still be as wealthy as they are today. That's a major fallacy. Those jobs were very far down in the value chain and offered very low pay to workers in the US in the 50s, 60s and 70s. You have to thank millions of Asians that are happy working in these garbage jobs for low salaries and a generation later Americans (on average) can work in better jobs instead, buying cheap products from Asia that their own parents used to produce in the US for a low salary. Now tell me, is the average wealth of the middle class worker in the US better today or a generation (30 years) ago? Is today's 30 year old family man better off or was his father better off in 1978?