America To "Lose" In A Trade War?

If the Chinese don't like it, why don't they just take it to the Ninth Circuit, like everyone else who has a beef with Trump does? They already run immigration policy, by virtue of one of the invisible ink clauses in the Constitution that only liberal activist judges can discern.
 
Pay most attention to this line -- "But targeted protectionism works. China is proof."

However the target needs to involve a single product group and a single country who has high tariffs on your product. The expectation is that you mirror their tariff to force them to lower their tariff -- to make trade fair & equable.

Same underlying concept, but just to put a finer point on it, the other country might not even have tariffs on your stuff- in theory- but may be dumping - ie. unloading cheap government subsidized products into your country- and a tariff is needed on their stuff to create a level playing field. Think China and steel. Of course in regard to some countries, they are doing both. They have tariffs on our stuff that are out of wack with what we have on their goods, and they are dumping too.

Need to revisit all our trade agreements and do some "adjustments" where needed. I would especially like to work something good out for mexico and Canada and as long as they have something smart and reasonable to say for themselves as each and every aspect of the treaties are re-examined they will come out just fine. If they don't, well, that's going to be a problem for them. A YUGE problem. Because we need to make America great again - not Calgary.
 
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china steel

BN-DH523_0618tw_P_20140617234950.jpg




US Steel's Gary works. The largest integrated steel mill in America. Built in 1908.

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Chinese steel workers pay--$330/month
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/strike-02092015173158.html

US Steel wages== $5-7,000/month
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/United-States-Steel/salaries

And we haven't even gotten into the pensions.

This is why we can't compete in steel. Their cost is a fraction of ours. Claiming that they undercut us on price because they cheat is bogus nonsense.


An America where we all buy high priced, shoddy products made in century old plants staffed by workers who go on strike the minute they smell that they are protected from competition is not going to make us greater.

If we can't buy bulk, low margin commodity products from developing countries then what can we buy from them?

How about we just nail other countries to the wall when they steal intellectual property or when they buy counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and let the american consumer get a good deal on their choice of products.


A "good job" is a job where someone can make a lot of money by providing high value added.

A high school dropout making a commodity product and getting a high income because he is protected from competition by the gov't and belongs to a union that strikes every other year is what passes for a 'good job' these days. But it's nothing but a ripoff of the American public.

It is not going to make us greater by forcing us to buy inferior products at higher costs.
 
This one could end up hurting everybody.

In reality the only one having been "hurt" for decades has been the US.... taking it in the shorts to the tune of $80Bn/month. Trump wants to end America being the world's trade bitch. Sure, anyone on the surplus side of world trade is going to feel "hurt" when his gravy train gets slowed down, but it's not like he's asking the rest of the world to run a net $80Bn/mo trade deficit with us.

All coins having 2 sides... If we want to buy low cost finished goods and materials, we probably have to buy them from overseas where labor costs are much lower than in the US... and there's a big component of your trade deficit.
 
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china steel

BN-DH523_0618tw_P_20140617234950.jpg




US Steel's Gary works. The largest integrated steel mill in America. Built in 1908.

1200px-U.S._STEEL_PLANT_-_NARA_-_547097_%28retouched%29.jpg




Chinese steel workers pay--$330/month
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/strike-02092015173158.html

US Steel wages== $5-7,000/month
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/United-States-Steel/salaries

And we haven't even gotten into the pensions.

This is why we can't compete in steel. Their cost is a fraction of ours. Claiming that they undercut us on price because they cheat is bogus nonsense.


An America where we all buy high priced, shoddy products made in century old plants staffed by workers who go on strike the minute they smell that they are protected from competition is not going to make us greater.

If we can't buy bulk, low margin commodity products from developing countries then what can we buy from them?

How about we just nail other countries to the wall when they steal intellectual property or when they buy counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and let the american consumer get a good deal on their choice of products.


A "good job" is a job where someone can make a lot of money by providing high value added.

A high school dropout making a commodity product and getting a high income because he is protected from competition by the gov't and belongs to a union that strikes every other year is what passes for a 'good job' these days. But it's nothing but a ripoff of the American public.

It is not going to make us greater by forcing us to buy inferior products at higher costs.
This is such a dated opinion it has no relevance in 2018. American made steel is by no means inferior. I happened to work at US Steel Gary Works during the 70's, and then in and out as a contractor for many years(decades) after. Yes, in the 70's the equipment was dated and falling apart. At that time there were about 25,000 people working at that plant. Today there are about 7,000 and the plant has been mostly refurbished and updated with modern technology. Their steel making capacity has increased 3-4 fold, even with all the labor reduction. I can assure you there are no "high school dropouts" operating this equipment and highly skilled tradesmen are maintaining and repairing it. I hope you're not suggesting that the American worker needs further wage reduction. Like I said during the 2008 economic crisis, the man or woman punching a time clock isn't fucking up this economy. That falls squarely on the financial terrorists in the corporate boardrooms, and the incompetent nitwits in congress. This tariff will create many jobs directly in the industry, and all associated smaller shops that provide support to the industry. These will be jobs that pay well and can support a family. Any additional cost to goods and services will be offset with better wages, and higher employment for all Americans. As an example I heard that this tariff will end up adding about 150 bucks to the price of a car. Who gives a fuck? 150 bucks on a 30,000 dollar vehicle is nothing. Here's the hard truth. It doesn't matter what a car costs, and what great interest rate there is if you don't have a god damn job, or a shit paying job. The man with a good job will happily pay the extra 150. Now we need to get going rebuilding the infrastructure which will add millions of good jobs and the REAL economy will boom. Fuck what it does to the portfolio of the Wall Street globalist.
 
This is such a dated opinion it has no relevance in 2018. American made steel is by no means inferior. I happened to work at US Steel Gary Works during the 70's, and then in and out as a contractor for many years(decades) after. Yes, in the 70's the equipment was dated and falling apart. At that time there were about 25,000 people working at that plant. Today there are about 7,000 and the plant has been mostly refurbished and updated with modern technology. Their steel making capacity has increased 3-4 fold, even with all the labor reduction. I can assure you there are no "high school dropouts" operating this equipment and highly skilled tradesmen are maintaining and repairing it. I hope you're not suggesting that the American worker needs further wage reduction. Like I said during the 2008 economic crisis, the man or woman punching a time clock isn't fucking up this economy. That falls squarely on the financial terrorists in the corporate boardrooms, and the incompetent nitwits in congress. This tariff will create many jobs directly in the industry, and all associated smaller shops that provide support to the industry. These will be jobs that pay well and can support a family. Any additional cost to goods and services will be offset with better wages, and higher employment for all Americans. As an example I heard that this tariff will end up adding about 150 bucks to the price of a car. Who gives a fuck? 150 bucks on a 30,000 dollar vehicle is nothing. Here's the hard truth. It doesn't matter what a car costs, and what great interest rate there is if you don't have a god damn job, or a shit paying job. The man with a good job will happily pay the extra 150. Now we need to get going rebuilding the infrastructure which will add millions of good jobs and the REAL economy will boom. Fuck what it does to the portfolio of the Wall Street globalist.


An executive that has a tariff placed by congress on his competitors is a crony capitalist. Their days of having to compete for business are over once they get this advantage. They can make more money without having to do anything to improve, become more efficient, or bring down cost. I'm pretty sure they prefer this approach. It is not like they prefer the no-tariff, have to compete with competition way so they can greedily clean up. It's the opposite. If a boardroom boy is greedy, then he loves tariffs.

If getting employment down from 25k unskilled to 7k skilled is a bad thing for putting all those people out of a job, it cannot simultaneously be an example of how the company is so much better now that they've become more efficient. If they're a lot better now than they were before, then getting rid of all the unproductive was a good thing. That's how they became better. If they hadn't done the layoffs, they would still be inefficient.

Spending a trillion bucks on infrastructure and then telling the companies who are going to do the building that they won't have to compete for the business is a prescription for disaster for the taxpayer.
 
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