Mr. Bankruptcy???
Yeah. OK. Wanna buy a bridge?
Hey let's become more like China and have government controlled consumer taxes, a.k.a tariffs.
If this is true of the population as a whole, then there should already be American companies meeting that market demand. I should be able to walk into a store and see the Chinese made toaster for $20 and the USA made toaster for $35.
Personally, I don't think one in fifty would pay the $35 for a locally made toaster......unless the Federal Government forces the price to that level, which is what Trump and his fans apparently want to happen.
Tell that to the consumers who are paying it.
Trump plans to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants and plans to deport illegal immigrants, which would open many jobs to unemployed Americans. This would increase the opportunities for unemployed and under-employed Americans.
The jobs that most illegals perform are low-skill, minimum wage jobs. Trump also wants to reduce the minimum wage. So it's hard to see exactly how it will improve the conditions for unemployed and under-employed. Companies could do that now my merely raising the salary they're willing to pay.
I like my idea.
How about government leave businesses alone to do what businesses do best? Supply and demand is a proven success. But I do like the balanced trade agreement thing. We shouldn’t give other countries’ corporations preference over our own.
One big fly in the ointment are the big retailers.
Several years ago I watched a documentary about WalMart and it’s tactics.
WalMart demanded Rubbermaid sell them it’s product at X dollars.
Rubbermaid said it wasn’t possible because the price quoted by WalMart would bankrupt Rubbermaid.
WalMarts response was to call each store and pull all Rubbermaid products from the sales floor immediately.
They also cancelled all undelivered orders.
Weeks later Rubbermaid not only accepted WalMarts offer, but rebated the product then sitting in the stores back rooms.
Rubbermaid ended up laying off most of their US employees and shifting production to China.
When I would go back to work after my home time, I would often pick up OTC meds in North Carolina.
Those loads were usually “drop and hook”, I would drop an empty trailer and pick up a loaded trailer.
One day I arrive to get a load and the load wasn’t ready.
I waited.
The next day, still no load.
The plant finally sent someone to see us.
WalMart had cancelled all orders from the company *nationwide* in order to “negotiate” lower prices.
In the next year or so that OTC company started production offshore in order to meet WalMarts price demands.
WalMart alone has sent millions of jobs overseas.
I completely stopped shopping at WalMart about six years ago.
Sam Walton is dead and his Buy American campaign died with him.
Yes, I will, and do, pay a slightly higher price for Made in the USA products.
More than 40 years ago in my high school and even grade school history classes we studied tariffs, embargoes and how they leveled the playing field, prevented predatory pricing, smoothed the economy but also raised prices and the pros and cons of protectionism.
Basically, some regulation of international trade is a good and proper thing. Trump is right, for too long we have been the fool at the the negotiating table.
My own primary education seems like the turn of the century 8th grade education compared to today. You know, that example 8th grade test with all the difficult questions that nobody today can answer. One example:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2895447/posts
I’m a little disappointed that America Thinker somehow equates stock market fortunes with the economy. The market has rocketed higher ever since the Messiah took office - so does that logically mean the last 6 years have been an economic success?
The paper trade market really is a poor reflection of economic reality and instead is a creature of delusion, rigging to distribute from smart trader to dumb ones, and a recipient of a mass of public money.
There is far more value found in private companies for instance.
We don’t really have a good barometer of economic conditions since all statistics are managed heavily by the government, but the public I think knows a good economy from a bad one instinctively.
Fortunately, Trump says he’s a free trader, though you need smart leadership for it to work—and he believes himself to be smart leadership.
This tariff stuff is too reminiscent of the trigger to the Great Depression.