Posted on 04/09/2010 9:06:42 AM PDT by sfwarrior
Look around at the merchandise at a Wal-Mart. Nearly everything is made in China with the sole exception of the label that says "Made in China"; that's made in America. Joking aside, America has lost its industrial base. Over the past four decades, nearly all our manufacturing has gone overseas. Steel is dead, electronics dead, manufacturing of every kind fallen victim to cheap imports. How can a nation survive if it doesn't make anything? Have we degenerated to such a point that we are now a dependent colony to imperial nations? We sell our trees to China and Japan so they can make paper and furniture and sell it back to us. We sell our iron ore to China so they can make steel I-beams and sell it back to us. Isn't the classic definition of a dependent colony one that sells its natural resources to the usurper nation, which then adds value (manufacturing) before selling the finished product back to us, the hapless colony?
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
I’m inclined to agree. The cheap goods argument breaks on one rock- people with no jobs cannot afford any goods, no matter how cheap. People who are in between jobs or retraining constantly can subsist off of cheap goods, but not prosper. Free trade looks good in theory. When everyone else is practicing mercantilism, though, it is not doing us a lot of good.
If Chinese currency floated, we’d be doing fairly better around the world on the manufacturing front. However, without that, China is helping every one of us by letting us buy cheaper goods.
Heads we win. Tails we win. Either way has advantages.
The best solution is to keep free trade and radically trim government. Government produces nothing and is the huge gorilla in the room that sends investment dollars from businesses toward government debt backing.
Free trade is not the issue. Government is.
We dont need protectionism...we need the govt to get out of the way...
Want to win labor over?
PUT PEOPLE TO WORK.
You wont ever get the leadership...but the members will vote their wallets...
Union Coal workers...
Union gas workers...
Union Oil workers..
Union heavy construction workers...
Remind these guys that unemployment was 4.5% when the democrats took congress in 06’...
Remind them that democrat leaders are pissing away good union jobs in the energy industry..
Remind them that thier tax dollars are going to chinese
workers and european wind turbine namufacturers...
You didn’t read the article. If you did, you’d see the entire article is about putting people back to work. Lowering taxes on businesses is not enough to get consumers to buy American products when our wages are 30:1 higher than many 3 world manufacturing nations.
We are not winning if we are debtor nation and no one has a job to buy cheap goods made from our natural resources. Wake up Conservative Mind. Re-read the article. We’re becoming a banana republic. Literally, selling our natural resources, i.e. Lumber to other countries than we buy it back a paper and furntiure. Wake up. Classic definition of a banana republic exploited by superior nations.
“Protectionism is the only cure to restore our greatness and our conservatism.”
I’m directly addressing your comment...
The American people are responsible for this massive exodus. We were not vigilant in selecting those to ‘represent’ us in Washington D.C.. And those sitting on Capitol Hill began turning up the heat. There were those among us sounding alarms but ‘life was good’, no one listened.
The sad thing is that the government schools have taken over our children, told them what to think rather than how to think; taken our Divine Father out of the equation; removed unrevised American History from the curriculum; brain washed our kids with values clarification and situational ethics until there is little chance of turning back. As long as there are people over 65 in this country, we have a slight chance of reclaiming our sovereign Republic, but they are being outnumbered daily with new fodder for the Left.
After many years of cancer research there is no cure. Could that be because there is so much money in not curing it? Are there people behind the scenes who will benefit grandly if the cancer eating the country is not cured?
May God help the Tea Partiers. And may He inspire Good Men to step forward to defeat the disease that is killing our country!
Amen. Paper Doll.
You will find strong disagreement with conservatives about your assertion. Posters on Free Republic are sharply divided. The split seems about even.
Here is my brief summary of the issue, mostly in opposition to your assertion. Trade agreements are complex with their share of flaws. Perhaps the US has not negotiated well on trade agreements. Other countries would not agree with my last statement. Other countries have as many complaints about our trading behavior as we have of their behavior. We have plenty of protectionist behavior that other countries complain about.
Trade agreements, even with their flaws, are not the major problem. The problem with our economy is the Marxist in the white house and Marxist control of Congress. We have become highly risk averse as a country. Risk aversion to some extent has allowed Marxist control of our government. We have a horrible business environment dominated by regulations, litigation, taxation, government control of key industries, labor cartels, and government dependency.
I do not see any alternative to international trade agreements. We cannot turn back the clock. Global competition makes every country more competitive. Protectionism will unleash labor cartels and make our technology non competitive.
Ok ...read every word...
You go right ahead and start a trade war...see how that works out...
Slap an extra couple grand on a rice burner and watch a bunch a freepers freak out...
All this will do is generate higher prices and generate more revenue to be squandered by politicians...
Adam stubled accross the truth...then got up...dusted himself off...and kept right on going...
Here’s the truth:
“And did I mention our economy and government hummed along in the 19th century with no income taxes!”
You want to raise tarrifs and increase costs accross the board...fine...repeal the income tax FIRST.
The objective is the destruction of the American Ideal that “TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, governments are instituted among men”.
Our British owners never liked that; and their Communist Chinese “Capitalist” NyLon descendent’s evidently still don’t - and are using every clever mercantile trick at their disposal to accomplish what their ancestors couldn’t: Reacquisition of the American Colonies.
Do NyLons float as well as Tea did?
I't's been a lot longer than four decades.
When did steel, and all the associated industries begin to plummet?
I remember having discussions about the absurd concept of a national economy based solely on services and consumerism ---- in the mid-late sixties.
It took more like 50 years but the catastrophe is complete.
Any society not able to provide for all of its needs domestically, is at the mercy of somene or something else.
The unions, almost singlehandedly, enabled the ultimate destruction. With the indifference of management, government and the "reality show - sports universe" public.
Don't forget the enviromental Nazis who force steel producers to close down "for the children and the planet". There are several reasons for why our industrial base is minimized...not the least of which is that we care more about the snail darter and the march rat than we do about the economy.
What a frightening definition of "free Trade."
We don't have it now.
We may have never had it.
Tolerating punishing and draconian import duties from our so-called "Trading" partners is NOT "free trade"; it is stupidity.
Let's fight back with the weapons we have, before we no longer have them: innovation, technology and food.
Let the next 5 or 6 strongest economies in the world pick up their share of the burden, proportional to their economic "strength."
Let them rush equipment and food to disasters world wide, as quickly as the U.S. does.
Absent that, let's scale back to our proportional ability.
Let these strong economies defend themselves.
This neverland BS is getting really tedious.
Including World Nut Daily.
Unions are the engine that drove the national economic train over the cliff.
Together with government and criminal public employees and their extornionate stranglehold on everything.
A couple of grand has been slapped on rice burner pickups forever!
And they still collectively outsold US pickups.
How old are you, anyway?
What the hell does my age have to do with it?
Ford F-150 IS the best selling stand alone brand truck and has been for decades years...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_F-Series
I own one with a 190k miles on it....
My other daily driver is a 73’ lemans I’ve had for 20 years with 150k miles on it..
How old are YOU?
I’m old enough to remember when buying a foriegn car was unpatriotic and UNAMERICAN...so I dont...and wont...
I dont care if it’s “made” in my front yard...it’s still just a rice burner...
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