One consequence of our 25 year experiment with one-sided free trade is the loss of decent paying hourly manufacturing jobs. These jobs provided a ladder for motivated poor people to climb out of poverty through hard work. Low skilled entry level factory workers received training and had the opportunity to work their way up into higher paying hourly jobs or even supervisory and administrative jobs. When I entered the workforce in the 1970’s many of my coworkers in administrative and management jobs had started on the factory floor out of high school and had worked their way up without a college education. Some of the women had been single mothers. In today’s world those people would be trapped in the poverty cycle.
Low skilled factory jobs are gone today thanks to the decisions made to lower tariffs and export those jobs in the 1990’s. We enjoy the benefit of paying fifty cents less for a T-shirt at Wal-Mart, or $2.00 less for a toaster, because it is made in China instead of the US. Unfortunately we pay much more to the federal and state governments in taxes to support social programs required to support those who cannot find jobs in our 21st century service economy. Consider also governments earn less in tax receipts due to the inability of our economy to provide private sector jobs for over 90 million working age Americans. Meanwhile the average household income in this country continues to decline, our national debt rises, and the countries who subsidize their industries and control imports into their markets prosper.
The United States became the leading industrial nation in the world during the period 1865 to 1900. We had high tariffs during that period, yet the economy boomed, creating the modern day middle class. After 25 years of the modern free trade experiment, and the resulting deindustrialization of our economy, we see no evidence of economic prosperity. In fact, we’ve seen China become the largest manufacturing economy while enjoying the same kind of economic growth and prosperity the USA used to have.
We can either raise tariffs and rebuild the US manufacturing economy or we can continue down the current road and become another third world hell hole. Government jobs and service jobs will not employ 90 million of our fellow citizens.
Raise tariffs on imported goods, thereby creating an incentive to build factories in this country. I’ll gladly pay fifty cents more for a t-shirt and $2.00 more for a toaster because it will give unskilled American people without college degrees a real opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty and government dependency.
Raise tariffs on imported goods, thereby creating an incentive to build factories in this country. I’ll gladly pay fifty cents more for a t-shirt and $2.00 more for a toaster because it will give unskilled American people without college degrees a real opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty and government dependency.
Me too.
You cannot be a first world country based on service industry, the only way to create wealth is to mine it, make it or grow it. That's it.