| sales2099 said: The two main enemies are free trade and population growth. Free trade enables American corporations to not have any loyalties to their founding country and seek cheap labor elsewhere. It is getting REALLY out of hand lately. Trump aims to do tariffs and corporate incentives to stay in the states. |
And tariffs will make them not have any ties to their "founding country." It is not free-trade that motivates corporations to employ labor elsewhere, it is the high cost of labor in the U.S - induced by overregulation (most of which is just regulatory capture) as well as the highest corporate taxes in the world which does it. But it is really trivial to dispute the concepts of a protectionist with basic economic theory. Anyway this is why Trump supporters belong with Bernie supporters. They are both ridiculously ignorant about economics and espouse the same ridiculous policies.
http://mercatus.org/publication/benefits-free-trade-addressing-key-myths
The most recent debate over providing the US president fast-track trade-negotiating authority raises the perennial catalog of questions and concerns about free trade. This is understandable: the benefits of free international trade are often diffuse and hard to see, while the benefits of shielding specific groups from foreign competition are often immediate and visible. This illusion fuels the common perception that free trade is detrimental to the American economy. It also tips the scales in favor of special interests seeking protection from foreign competition. As a result, the federal government currently imposes thousands of tariffs, quotas, and other barriers to trade.
However well intended, restrictions on foreign trade harm the very people they aim to protect: American consumers and producers. Trade restrictions limit the choices of what Americans can buy; they also drive up the prices of everything from clothing and groceries to the materials manufacturers use to make everyday products. Moreover, it is lower-income Americans who generally bear a disproportionate share of these costs.
Below, Mercatus Center senior research fellow Donald J. Boudreaux reviews the benefits of freeing and increasing international trade and addresses some of the most pervasive myths that surround the free trade d
The Truths of Free Trade
Free trade increases prosperity for Americans—and the citizens of all participating nations—by allowing consumers to buy more, better-quality products at lower costs. It drives economic growth, enhanced efficiency, increased innovation, and the greater fairness that accompanies a rules-based system. These benefits increase as overall trade—exports and imports—increases.
- Free trade increases access to higher-quality, lower-priced goods. Cheaper imports, particularly from countries such as China and Mexico, have eased inflationary pressure in the United States.1 Prices are held down by more than two percent for every one-percent share in the market by imports from low-income countries like China.
- Free trade means more growth. At least half of US imports are not consumer goods; they are inputs for US-based producers, according to economists from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Freeing trade reduces imported-input costs, thus reducing businesses’ production costs and promoting economic growth.
- Free trade improves efficiency and innovation. Over time, free trade works with other market processes to shift workers and resources to more productive uses, allowing more efficient industries to thrive. The result is higher wages, investment in such things as infrastructure, and a more dynamic economy that continues to create new jobs and opportunities.2
- Free trade drives competitiveness. Free trade does require American businesses and workers to adapt to the shifting demands of the worldwide marketplace. But these adjustments are critical to remaining competitive, and competition is what fuels long-term growth.
- Free trade promotes fairness. When everyone follows the same rules-based system, there is less opportunity for cronyism, or the ability of participating nations to skew trade advantages toward favored parties. In the absence of such a system, bigger and better-connected industries can more easily acquire unfair advantages, such as tax and regulatory loopholes, which shield them from competition.
