Actually Trump's economic plan was not nearly as stupid as most of the things he has said.
He calls it an 'American First' plan where we take care of ourselves first.
The problem with a 'me first' plan in general is that it inspires (forces actually) others to adopt similar 'me first' policies in retaliation.
The global trend has been to develop a more global approach trying to keep the whole world afloat, not just exercise US economic power towards short term self interest.
If we could survive on complete isolationism where we make our own stuff, grow our own food, buy and sell to ourselves this would not be so bad an idea.
The problem is the rest of the world DOES exist and, in aggregate has even more economic power then we do. We DO need the rest of the world and the world has evolved into a place of cooperation and mutual benefit rather than one where each economic and political group seeks it own short term good at all cost.
The biggest danger of a 'me first' policy is that disadvantaged economies, and disadvantaged peoples suffer inordinately, forcing governments to adopt desperate means (e.g. tariff wars... and real fighting wars) in order to try to advantage themselves.
The poor of the world are real people who have real desires to survive and feed their children. If you have parents with starving children who see others living fat and rich there will be war of one kind or another.
Now you can plan a world economy that tries to be fair to as many people as possible or you can build a 'me first' economy that says FU to the world. If you take the later approach you better build a BIG army to go with it.
This, in fact, was the approach which produced WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam... as well as hundreds of wars back to the Roman Empire.
Of course Trump's economic plan would also increase the National Debt by somewhere between 6 and 10 trillion dollars while providing a windfall for the rich, especially Trump himself. Not surprising.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stancol...n-increase-in-the-national-debt/#236883fc7fbe
He calls it an 'American First' plan where we take care of ourselves first.
The problem with a 'me first' plan in general is that it inspires (forces actually) others to adopt similar 'me first' policies in retaliation.
The global trend has been to develop a more global approach trying to keep the whole world afloat, not just exercise US economic power towards short term self interest.
If we could survive on complete isolationism where we make our own stuff, grow our own food, buy and sell to ourselves this would not be so bad an idea.
The problem is the rest of the world DOES exist and, in aggregate has even more economic power then we do. We DO need the rest of the world and the world has evolved into a place of cooperation and mutual benefit rather than one where each economic and political group seeks it own short term good at all cost.
The biggest danger of a 'me first' policy is that disadvantaged economies, and disadvantaged peoples suffer inordinately, forcing governments to adopt desperate means (e.g. tariff wars... and real fighting wars) in order to try to advantage themselves.
The poor of the world are real people who have real desires to survive and feed their children. If you have parents with starving children who see others living fat and rich there will be war of one kind or another.
Now you can plan a world economy that tries to be fair to as many people as possible or you can build a 'me first' economy that says FU to the world. If you take the later approach you better build a BIG army to go with it.
This, in fact, was the approach which produced WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam... as well as hundreds of wars back to the Roman Empire.
Of course Trump's economic plan would also increase the National Debt by somewhere between 6 and 10 trillion dollars while providing a windfall for the rich, especially Trump himself. Not surprising.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stancol...n-increase-in-the-national-debt/#236883fc7fbe
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