Posted on 09/24/2010 6:39:21 PM PDT by Kaslin
My American-made car is the best I’ve ever owned.
(no I’m not making that up)
I’ve owned Japanese, German and American cars. My American car is the best so far. No, it’s not from Government Motors. :)
Well, tariffs are taxes the expense of which will be passed on to you and I either by higher prices or less choices or both. Its a sad substitute for robust free-market competition which “impossibly” worked in America until around 1930 as well as other places like Hong Kong that eschew government meddling.
For actual instances where markets are closed, or punitive tariffs are applied, it is irresponsible not to retaliate.
We agree then.
So.
What’s the holdup?
It is an interesting side note to this conversation the GM is selling more cars in China now than in the US.
It is equally interesting that GM is making those cars in China because China imposes huge tariffs on imported American cars...
Screw the chi-coms.
I’m not so much interesting in scr_wing anyone.
I’d prefer we simply wake up and look out for our own interests first.
That hasn’t been the case for several decades. The current situation in America is the result.
Time to look out for America first. Last. And only.
No quarter.
I'd also look back at the effects of tariff policies on auto imports to the US in the 80's - they both hurt the US consumer, and propped up the terrible inefficient US automakers. The US automakers weren't forced to get better, and when they finally started it was too late.
Do you have any experience dealing with Chinese businesses?
Unless of course you are acting on behalf of them.
China’s markets are CLOSED.
We are being abject, historic chumps.
China is taking over America’s place in the world, and those who should be looking out for America are helping them do it.
Ya, I work for a US company that has an office in China. So I know that their markets aren’t closed and we make money there. I also know that the biggest barrier to our growth is US tax policy, US environmental policy, US liability policy, US energy policy, US education policy, and US labor policy. Not to mention the Obamacare costs that will further drive down competitiveness. I’d prefer we get our own house in order before we start shutting down foreign trade.
Most US companies have offices in China.
The thing is, while our own markets are wide open to imports from China, China’s markets are closed to ours. Look at your company’s “office” in China.
Bet you a dollar to a renminbi, it’s what is referred to as a “joint venture”.
I don’t even know what company you’re referring to, and I know that’s the case.
It’s operated under your company name. Owned 51% by a Chinese interest.
See also: PLA.
Really. We’re completely and totally surrendering.
“The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 had a lot to do with the subsequent Great Depression.”
I’m not so sure. It’s a cause and effect thing. When there is a depression, there *has* to be a contraction in international trade. But does the contraction come first, or the protectionism?
Remember that protectionism is a long process, but a trade contraction can happen rapidly. And if the contraction has already happened, it becomes *easier* to pass protectionism, because it is a moot point.
Good post....the problem with the “Smoot Hawley caused/continued the Great Depression” myth is that the worldwide economy was sluggish after WW I....especially in Europe. Coupled with agricultural over-production and boom/bust real estate prices....the Great Depression had its roots in the mid 1920’s...well before Smoot Hawley came about.
Even if Smoot Hawley did not exist....there was no one to trade with...except for imperialistic Japan, Nazi Germany, and Stalin’s USSR.....the rest of the world was mired deep in economic problems.
The problem with China isn’t China, it’s America. If America slashed government spending, slashed its deficit, slashed its taxes, slashed regulations, then capital would flow here. Until it does that, nothing China can do will help America. America’s problems are largely of its own making.
So we run out of melamine-tainted dog food and suphurous drywall.
Remind me again, how cheap Third-World labor brought down the price of tennis shoes.
And how all the IT jobs were going to replace the manufacturing sent to the Third World.
And why companies such as Intel, IBM, and HSBC are pushing managers from the US to work over in China and India at local wages if they want to climb the ladder.
It's all about the people at the top seeing the coming demographic bomb in the US from afar, and trying to seed the Third World with enough US money that they can continue to post ever-expanding paper profits to make Wall Street happy.
Only problem is that India and China are stealing our intellectual property, funding corruption, oligarchies, and nepotism, and not creating the true middle classes the U.S.-based companies will need to grow.
The coup de grâce will be when the foreign countries either nationalize the US subsidiaries, or openly turn around and compete with them on price within the U.S..
And then the verminous US executives will have the nerve to look surprisd.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
OK. How many things have you voluntarily purchased lately? Why did you buy what you buy? Because you deemed what you purchased to be the best quality and price you could get your hands on. As consumer, you want the best value you can get regardless of where it was made, whether in America or another country including China. Did someone force you to buy what you bought? No. The market has no long-term demand for melamine-tainted dog food and suphurous drywall. Someone may get fooled in the short term, but overall, in a free market, price and quality determine what you and everyone else buys. The manufacturer that does the best job wins and the CONSUMER ALWAYS WINS.
Same with the job market. Nobody forces you or me to stay with he evil executives who want to send us places we don’t want to go. We decide where we want to work and we can make plans to change our careers if we want to.
Historical fact proves the success of the free market and the miserable failure of government meddling. Tariffs are a good example. Tariffs usually hurt the country that imposes them. Tariffs are taxes that artificially force price increases and lead fewer goods to choose from. Whatever the market is demanding, the incentive is there for manufacturers to profit from making and selling. The ones that do the best job win and, as I said, the consumer always wins.
“I like everything about it, but especially the bottom where it says:
“BRADFORD, PA MADE IN U.S.A.”
I collect old fishing lures etc. One of my prized possesions on my display shelf is an old (1930’s) box of Pflueger fish hooks. The front of the box has the bulldog trademark, “Since 1864”, “The Standard of the World”...
The back of the box states in large caps:
MADE IN U.S.A.
BY AMERICAN WORKERS
OF AMERICAN MATERIAL
“The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 had a lot to do with the subsequent Great Depression.”
That’s often repeated but the evidence is weak. Foreign trade accounted for less than 5% of the US economy in that era. There had been higher tariff bills prior to Smoot Hawley. The stock market fell in 1929 before the passage of Smoot Hawley. And the most significant factor making the Depression severe in America was the collapse of thousands of small banks and the resulting 30% collapse of the money supply.
The point is that the S-H Tariff combined with other disastrous government decisions is an example of how government’s attempt to control economic matters almost always makes matters worse, not better. Government policies in the early 1930’s including tax hikes, the S-H Tariff, wasteful government works programs, and wage and price controls deepened the recession. The coup de grâce, so to speak, was the astonishing policy of the FED to decrease the money supply thus causing the devastating chain of bank closures and helped turn a recession into a full-blown depression.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.