The Republican Party must return to its protectionist roots and STOP THE DE INDUSTRIALIZATION of the USA caused by off shoring.
Automation: Yes automation means it takes fewer worker to produce the same amount of product. AS LONG AS THE FACTORY IS IN THE USA THEN THAT WOULD BE A GOOD THING. Protectionists are not Luddites.
“FREE TRADE” is NOT so “FREE” as it pretends to be
What we have is INVERTED LANGUAGE...
We only have free trade between the States.
We. do not have it with NAFTA, GATT, China, etc... That’s nothing but rigged trade deals sold under the lie of “free trade”.
At the inception of our Republic. It was trade tariffs that funded our federal and State governments. There were no income taxes., social security or Medicaid.
It would be nice if could get back to this in a Trump Administration.
Limbaugh are you listening? The anti trade agreement protectionist won the day. Get on board or go out of business. I’ve turn you off. If you continue your residence on the NWO globalist plantation then I am permanently done with you.
“The Great Betrayal” was a formative book for me. Virtually everything PJB, as Nostradamus, forecast, turned true. Sane trade policy turned the USA into a colossus. Self interested trade policy has turned China into a new colossus. “We are the world” trade policy took Britain from SuperPower to just another EU member, crestfallen.
The problem with today's manufacturing sector is essentially the same: The aging capital stock in the US has not been replaced. After WWII, the Japanese and German capital stock was bombed into oblivion. We helped them rebuild. The result: Both countries replaced their factories with totally new technology while the US was using the same plants that existed in the 1890's, especially in steel and other primary inputs.
What Trump needs to do is give US manufacturing an incentive to modernize US manufacturing plants here rather than in other countries. Tariffs and quotas could play a part, but that's "pushing on a string": It relies on foreign manufacturers to accrue the benefit. Trump would get a faster and more direct impact if he lowers taxes on manufacturers who stay in the US, plus some form of tax credit for new investment.
Bump for later.
Excellent history lesson from Pat Buchanan. Thanks Pat.
I recommend that you take a look at the economic literature on the roles of export led industrialization, currency manipulation, and high levels of US taxes and regulations in the decline of US manufacturing. And as a basis for optimism, cheap natural gas due to fracking may radically benefit the cost calculations that underpin US manufacturing while Trump era reforms reduce the regulatory and tax burden.
Great article! Buchanan states it brilliantly. I sure hope that Trump and his people read and embrace this.
posted by Mr PeachyKeen