fatslob-:O said:
Donald Trump is a pretty mixed bag when it comes to some fiscal issues but in free trade there are winners and losers ... Big importers (losers) like the US and Greece keep raking in deficits while big exporters like China are winning big time ... A nation with no economic independence is at the mercy of every other nation ... (There's a reason why the US was trying to derail OPEC as much as possible just before the shale oil revolution.) |
Is China really winning big time in the last year or so? Their artificial bubbles are about to burst, and a few of the smaller ones have already done so. Exporters, like mainland China, are racking up deficits too, just not by the same means and not in the same way. China's total debt as a percentage of GDP is something like 268%.1 I mean there is a credit bubble in China just waiting to burst, and it is going to burst quite massively when it does. Deficits aren't caused by a loss of manufacturering jobs, but principally by overspending on the part of governments, and China's government is as bad as it gets. Also economic independence is a fantasy land in today's world. Too many people benefit from trading with people in other countries. To have economic independence (if a thing ever existed) is silly. It is the concept of state socialists like those found in Cuba, U.S.S.R, North Korea, and Venezuela that a country can have "economic independence." It has no place in a free-market society based on the private ownership of the means of production by individuals and not nation-states.
So what are Trump's solutions to all of this? Probably just as bad as Bernie's: tarriffs and exit taxes. Sorry those are archaic ideas left in the time of mercantilism. If we want to have costs of living go through the roof then we should vote for Trump. Otherwise I don't want to spend more for my clothing, electronics, and home appliances just because a group of people pushed all of their opportunities out of this country by unreasonable wage and benefit demands and now want protectionism to benefit only them. Sorry steel workers and car manufacturers, demanding $70,000 (when adjusted for inflation) salaries in the 1960's and 70's was ridiculous and foolish and they are now paying the consequences for it. Don't make the rest of us pay for their mistakes.
