The problem in America right now, is that cheaper manufacturing can be done in China.
Much cheaper in fact.
If that was the only consideration, I would not argue against simply sending our industry to another country.
There is however a VERY BIG problem with that. Not only does that send away American wealth, perhaps more important it makes our most significant global competitor stronger.
Remember please that China has several times (and several times again) America’s population.
All the massive amount of industry we have already sent to China is building up that country very very rapidly.
China is now second in the entire globe. Rapidly gaining on us.
That is the part of all of this, which it doesn’t appear anyone is thinking about.
At some point given current trends, China catches and passes America.
China becomes the number one, undisputed world champion.
Then what?
We will STILL be buying all of our stuff from China, and they will simply zoom past America and just take over.
That is what nobody seems to be paying attention to.
Not democrats. Not the GOP.
Nobody is looking 5 years or 10 years down the road, with American making nothing, with China exporting billions of dollars of stuff into America, but now China is on top of the heap.
That is what I am talking about.
China could pass up by. (very rapidly I believe)
Then what?
Nobody in either party is paying a bit of attention to that.
It is a very real, very important question.
Who will support America?
I feel like we are talking past each other, and I can’t find a single thing I disagree with.
The point I am trying to make is that capitalism is based on money, and people are going to make their decisions based on that criteria.
Asking people to “Buy American” isn’t going to fix the problem because it depends on altruistic principles, which are often contrary to human nature.
Unless we fix the environment (legislative, political, bureaucratic, cultural) for business and allow industry to function like a sleek ship with a freshly cleaned and painted hull, we are going to have a ship of industry that has a barnacle-encrusted hull that will be passed by ships of many other countries who don’t have the self-inflicted overhead that we do.
We need to let people make money, and it won’t happen in a country where a culture of wealth-hating is being fostered, and politicians want to tax and set up an environment where the only place any of us will want to invest money (to make money) is overseas where industry works.
I don’t think we disagree, we possibly simply think the solution is different. I believe in letting the free market take over with profitable industry, however that happens. If a trade war results due to tariffs and other types of protective legislation, I am not opposed to that, since countries like China do engage in product dumping and such, but we should go into it open-eyed.