How to Save the American Economy

[mrstickball]

McDonaldsGuy said:

mrstickball said:

1. There was a good bit of research done regarding Smoot-Hawley. It did contribute to the loss of GDP during the Great Depression - no less than 10% of all GDP lost during the depression was due to Smoot-Hawley. Why? Because when we add tariffs, so do other countries. Every country we hit with new tariffs hit us back, which was disasterous for many of our industries.

2. Why are we losing jobs? You really don't bother asking, nor answering that question. You simply yell "Tariffs! Tariffs!" in some insane belief that they will fix our problem.

I know people that run manfuacturing in the US. A few, actually, from different disciplines. The problem isn't tariffs. A lot of times, its government regulations. As it stands, tax and environmental regulations add about $15,000 onto every manufacturing job created. That is a huge amount of money, which drives jobs overseas. Reasonable regulations and reforms could drive that cost down, bringing jobs back. Thus the regulatory holiday. Certainly, China is playing an unfair game with currency manipulation, but (again) the response shouldn't be tariffs. It should be a reasonable monetary policy for the US, which would restore the strength of the dollar.

 

I showed you the chart showing Smoot Hawley contributed to 1% (more likely less) to our GDP loss.And loads of countries had tariffs then. We added tariffs many times throughout history and that never happened. In fact it has only helped us. Free trade on the other hand has put is in a trade deficit, and lost us millions of jobs that will likely never come back. Yay?

I have answered why we are losing jobs - we are losing jobs because we are exporting our TRUE economy (industry) and now we are a "service economy." Right. Then a lot of the jobs we do have in the U.S. are being taken by illegal immigrants. For example, 15% of construction workers are illegal immigrants. Thousands of construction workers are losing their jobs, when if we deported the 15% that are taking them that would not be a problem.

And yes, we have internal problems as well - my proposals are just the start. But it's not just manufacturing jobs we are losing - heck, even our "service economy" is going down the tubes. Look at the call centers in India. Our tech companies aren't even American anymore!

Why do you think that so many manual labor jobs are by illegals? Our country has a culture that hates to do hard labor. Mike Rowe's outlook is (IMO) generally right about it.

You can't always take a nationalistic "Its everyone elses' fault!" when it comes to employment. There is always a reason jobs go overseas. Many times, its because its much easier to work with other nations than it is America - less regulations, less red tape, and they are willing to do whatever is needed to get your business. If you change that, then jobs come back.

*edit* The energy sector in the US is a fantastic example of it. The government has continually restricted the growth of the energy sector, which has driven a lot of money overseas. Comparatively, states that are pushing for more drilling/fracking/ect are growing at great rates. You mentioned how bad Ohio is - we're actually below the national average on unemployment, because a lot of energy jobs have been coming to the state in the past few years. Look at North Dakota - they have no unemployment because of the Bakken formation.

Look at nations that have taken our jobs, or created their own - they've all done it through sane regulations that aren't overbearing, and a proper tax atmosphere. Better yet, why not look at countries with very protectionist policies and high tariffs? They are not the beacons of growth that you believe they are.

Here's a list for you, by the way:

http://www.heritage.org/index/explore?view=by-variables

Its pretty damning when it comes to tariffs. Each country that approaches 0% import tariffs are doing very well economically (Hong Konh, Macau, Singapire, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Canada, ect). Comparatively, no nation that has a 10% tariff rate has seen notable growth in the past decade.