I provided very simple FACTUAL evidence why tariffs can be beneficial in the long run, but you guys focus on the here and now. So it's difficult to discuss anything. It's kind of like saying that you have to work extra hard to lose weight when you are fat than to maintain it. The US is still super fat.
Cool story, Bro. Here's an example of how super-awesome tariffs are in the long run: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot–Hawley_Tariff_Act
You are seriously advocating that we should kill billions in trade for a drain cleaning device that someone "invented" that go knocked off by the Chinese (That's what his "FACTUAL" clip was about, for anyone who didn't view it)? Again, are you fucking serious? Again, have you ever read a trade agreement? Again, have you ever engaged in international trade? Again, do you have the first clue WTF you're talking about!? This mentality, your mentality, is exactly the problem. You know nothing about international trade and the benefits that even "unfair" agreements bring to the U.S. and clearly know nothing about the impacts of nihilistically blowing everything up in a tantrum for some kind of child-like belief that somehow the big old world is being "unfair" to us poor wittle U.S. people. You fall for the old "no pain no gain" thing without even a rudimentary understanding of what we have to gain and what we have to lose (hint, we have almost everything to lose and the handful of jobs that come from drain cleaner inventor "entrepreneurs" to gain), let alone any careful computation of exactly what those potential future gains and losses are. Seriously, stop for a minute and think about where you came to this strong opinion? Did you base it on careful original research? Did you actually read any of the trade documents? Conduct or at least read any quantitative research about international trade and trade agreements? Did you engage in any trade based business? Because the overwhelming vast majority of folks who came to their opinion on trade and tariffs using the methods I just described agree that the current tantrum based trade wars are incredibly destructive for the U.S. in the long term! China stops buying soybeans from the U.S. and develops other sources of supply closer to home (which they have) that's a long-term loss. Tariffs go away and that business doesn't come back. Same with pretty much everything for which a substitute exists (substitutes are something we who study international trade and business have thought a lot about, have you?). Are these things you've thought about, done quantitative research on, experienced? If not, have you stopped to ask yourself if you're really being reasonable to insist on holding so tightly to such a viewpoint that you originally arrived at based on no more than a few news clips and guys in your political bubble at the coffee shop with a similar lack of experience and education on this subject? Now I know exactly what you're going to do now, you're going to go scour the internet for a PhD who will say Trump's trade wars are a good thing. The confirmation bias is a strong thing, and since sadly you're probably unfamiliar with it as well you'll be unable to stop yourself. But that's you just looking for support for an opinion you formed based on incredibly incomplete information. Is that really a rational way to go through life? You're smarter than that, you really are. Don't let yourself be duped by a political framework that I doubt you even chose but was chosen for you by the people you grew up around and whose assumptions you've probably never even identified let alone rigorously examined.
Dude, 75% of my income is US-based and I do not live in the US, trust me, I understand. The vast majority of economists also thought housing ownership for everyone was a good idea. If one could correctly predict the future and act on it, one would be a trillionaire.
I watched the video. The squawk box is just that, a bunch of CNBC people eating crow. The video did not explain at all why tariffs are important. The guy talked about the "Drain Wig", a US-patented product that only works in commercial bathtubs. The guy even mentioned how it will work with a drain plunger, WHICH IT WILL NOT. Anyhoo, the lowest price you can find from their website which is linked to their Amazon selling page is the lowest price available. Even if you buy from them direct, the thing is about the same price. So how would our China tariffs affect that product in the long term? It won't. Tariffs are not good for the economy long-term...They are damaging. Free-trade is the boon. People will always choose the lowest price for items, because Americans are bargain-hunters. This is why big box retail like Walmart is successful... They source most of their wares from China. You can tariff China all you want...There are plenty of other eastern hemisphere countries we do not have tariffs with that will gladly take over the manufacturing of our products for cheep. There is absolutely no way we can zero out our trade deficit with China at this time with tariffs, because in comparison, domestically-made products will usually be more expensive than products sourced elsewhere. The issue being raised by others, Mr. Noob, is that you fail to see the damage done by China tariffing OUR products, so people like Sig suffer losses from lower demand because the Chinese will not want to buy our domestic products, when they can just make it themselves for a lot less. They would not go through that trouble if they could just get it at a reasonable rate from us. You are losing your argument here big-time, nooby. You should probably let it rest.
The entire reason China can make the same product for less is because they steal the IP. That's the big picture there. The "drain wig" that everyone seems to be focusing on is a red herring. It's emblematic of the situation with China: they steal the IP and have no consequences. Trump has said that IP theft is a major problem, whether he succeeds on this is another question. I am not intersted in winning or losing, just finding out what's true.
Well, your problem is understanding that tariffs is NOT THE ANSWER. Why do you find this concept so difficult to grasp? Tariffs are never going to solve the IP problem.
Well in Nooby's defense.... I think O'Leary was using the drain gizmo as a very simple and easy to understand example of intellectual property theft. This is more serious: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/prc-...-three-individuals-charged-economic-espionage And even then, thats the tip of the iceburg. Not sure on the rights/wrongs of the whole tariff thing, but IP theft has to stop. Thats worth a line in the sand. (I like O'Leary btw. ) Edit.... Kinda what I was saying while I typed I guess.
Oh, that is something I missed making a point on... China can make the products for cheep not because they stole the IP, but because they employ cheep labor, lax safety standards, etc in their processes. What does stealing IP mean, anyway? It just means copying the ideas, concepts et.al. If the US decided to "steal" some original IP from Chine like...(well, I cannot think of a real Chinese modern product at the moment, call it widget A), we would then proceed to manufacture the thing. But we would have to spend a lot more money to manufacture widget A at a higher cost of X, so if we wished to sell it back to China, they would laff in our face, because they already make the same thing domestically for many times less at a lower cost of Y, so it is then cheeper for the Chinese consumer.