How to Save the American Economy

[richardhutnik]

McDonaldsGuy said:

You may want to check the global trends regarding manufacturing jobs and then decide what globalization has to do with it. 

In regards to stopping imports, here is a question: Is it a good a idea for the world's largest exporter of goods and services to block imports?  That, FYI, is the United States:

http://www.freeenterprise.com/2011/04/trade-stats-whos-the-worlds-largest-exporter

 

In regards to immigration, you can look into that, but America is a country of immigrants.  You could have a similar effect on it, if you strictly enforced minimum wage laws, and fined employers heavily who broke them.

The problems with the U.S economy is pretty deep, and the world overall.  You need to look at trends in how labor demands all over have declined, and also see the effect of having an economy based around debt.  In short, there is no simple answers, including a crunch on resource if the likes of China and india decide they want to have modern middle-class lifestyles.  Yes, add sustainability to all this to.

I wouldn't be stopping imports - I should make it clear I want selective tariffs. That's my fault. Basically, tariffs on Chinese goods mostly. I wouldn't put a tariff on say PlayStation, BMW, or Nestle for example.

And America was built on legal immigration for people who came to live and love America, not illegals who hate America and undercut American workers.

All I know is that America is in for a ride, and something needs to be done.

The problem is that, the moment you start deciding to do a trade war, the other side ends up responding.  You also end up causing issues with the WTO, which the United States uses and goes to, to try to enforce intellectual property rights.  You would end up with things, if you go after China, where China would end up doing things like getting a cut from illegally sold software, and other intellectual property rights.  It gets messy and REAL ugly soon.  This is why no one wants to get near it.

On the illegal immigration front, the problem is it is likely impossible to stop it.  There is ways to get into America, so it falls under the drug war.  Irony here is, that the worse America is, the less of a problem they have with illegal immigration.  Illegal immigration went down, and illegal aliens started to go back to Mexico (or wherever) once the economy tanked.  

I won't say that both of these don't have some impact.  However, there are other serious deep issues that are impacting things in major ways, and those issues out outlined end up actually being magic bullet scapegoats rather than what would actually fix things if that is all that was done.  In short, things politicians campaign on that won't be dealt with when they get in power.