The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Thoughts On Protectionism

    By Tommy Holmes on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 6:58am |

    Free Trade is killing the American middle class. You know Washington has to be in bed with Corporate America to have passed these laws. No unions, environmental laws and ultra cheep labor will certainly attract business to out-source jobs; but when you killed the import tariffs and allowed them to get the goods back into this country free, you sealed the fate of the American worker! I know there's nothing here you didn't know and understand. If you truly represent the American people, advance some protectionism legislation. If someone doesn't soon, the boycotts will start. We Can starve the beast. And don't you know after you build up China to they're liking, they're gonna kick America's ass right out of their country? China's greatest weapon is American greed. God Bless America - land that I lost !!!!

    Comments

    I don't disagree for the most part. But I can tell you from experience it's mostly falling on deaf ears here. Democrats appear to be as dead-set on destroying America's workforce as the Republicans are - on this issue they are in agreement.


    by kgb999 on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 4:57pm

    I'm hip bro. Still have the power of the boycott. We should lay siege and starve the beast. If only we had the solidarity.


    by Tommy Holmes on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 4:44am

    I don't think Free Trade is killing the middle class. It's sweetheart backroom deals and tons of direct subsidies to the elites that are killing it. Big Ag gets billions for corn subsidies - there's no free trade in that. How is GE able to avoid taxes completely? All the indirect and direct subsidies to the oil industry (why don't we pay for Mideast war out of oil proceeds? Then the price would reflect the real cost?)

    We can compete against China with a level playing field. Where they need huge factories and tons of low-paid workers, they'll likely win, but we'll do the high-margin work that requires organization, and still grow jobs.

    And if we weren't continually fighting useless wars and giving tax cuts we can't afford and trying to cut every program on earth, we could afford that ephemeral re-training and education money to keep America's work force up on new skills. If we had a universal health care system that made it easy to switch jobs, people could better re-locate to where their skills are needed.

    Sure, there are going to be issues of dumping and other illegal trade practices that need to be prevented and sued for (Huawei's government-subsidized telecom equipment, for example), but overall, the problems of the last decade weren't free trade - they were 1) Bush's huge tax cut, 2) the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, 3) the cronyism that allowed the mortgage bubble/illegal foreclosure and Wall Street toxic asset scandals to occur.

    We've thrown away trillions on this kind of stupidity and criminality, and now we want to say those damn Chinese are working too hard for too little? How about we just get about 10x smarter, and let the Chinese enjoy a bit of improvement as well?

     


    by Desider on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 1:31am

    Detroit was competitive until recently even with huge health insurance costs. Of course Japanese auto makers get quite a few government subsidies, and then they have universal health care, so structurally they've got an advantage. But still, as of around 2005, the Big 3 were holding their own.


    by Desider on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 1:34am

    I agree with the BIG three you pointed out for certain. But when they outsource anything and everything, that cannot be overlooked as a prime reason for the more or less pitiful job growth this country in seeing. In that regard the middle class is being hurt - BIG TIME. Another thing compounding the problem is that even the banks don't believe in this countries ability to compete with the huge profit margins Free Trade generates and are lending money to interests overseas at a far greater rate then they're lending here in the states. Hence the engine of growth small business is not being capitalized.


    by Tommy Holmes on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 12:04pm

    Possibly  we could compete with the subsistence level compensation in not only China but an endless string of developing nations in its wake.. 

    But whyever would we want to.?  As Keynes said, repeatedly, let all goods be homespun,

    Erect tariff bariers and we'll quickly learn to live without the rest of the world ,perhaps the only country that could.(for geographic reasons). Whatever the preference of the rentier class given no alternative they would be forced to employ american workers at wages that are sufficient to keep them working.. Free trade is a euphemism for strike breaking.


    by Flavius on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 9:51pm