Trade Wars...

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Stocktracker, Sep 18, 2020.

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  2. Biden would be good for China. That is why China wants him in the White House.

    Biden would roll over and take in the *** like Obama did. Those Dems are screwy.
     
  3. gaussian

    gaussian

    The trade deficit argument is tone deaf. Any sitting president after Obama would've inherited the mess brought on by years of import-friendly policy that disenfranchised America. This is an American problem and is the culmination of decades of import-friendly policy to reduce costs for mega corps.

    What would you do as president? Assuming you actually believe in making America great again you would think it would involve bringing jobs back to America. For that, I actually think Trump made decent headway using the powers he actually had - e.g. Tariffs and arguing for economic nationalism when faced with NAFTA and other agreements.

    But the problem really is something like this:

    1. Trump raises Tariffs. Ostensibly this will bring work back to America because it's prohibitive to buy from China/Canada/Mexico.
    2. China uses one of their many facilities not effected by tariffs (Vietnam and Africa) to build the widgets, and ship them that way. This avoids the Tariffs.
    3. Companies realize there is global labor arbitrage that is still legal and take advantage of it.
    4. The labor arbitrage problem has made even the widget + tariffs still cheaper than the net cost of restarting factories and hiring Americans, who have significantly more labor protection and legally guaranteed requirements than someone in China, India, Pakistan, or Vietnam.

    The problem is significantly more complicated than "orange man bad" and trade deficits are expected to grow significantly in a import-only economy. Trump could be heavy handed and mandate every company be composed of at least 95% naturalized and/or born Americans but this would be shut down immediately as racist (despite no evidence of such thing).
     
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