Look At It This Way
Guest columnist Brad Smith
ICYMI, one of my goals here is to find and forward comments from reliable sources that serve to inform from a different perspective. Not “different" as in ‘contrary’, but as in “why didn’t think of that?” or “this is better than I could do!”. Brad Smith has been here before and may be again. I hope you find his “take” constructive and informative.
BW
Another couple of ways to look at this is from the business owner's side and from a Macro level economics view.
Business owners are paying far more for the same labor, per dollar their employees are FAR Less productive and less happy at the same time.
On a macro level the same is true. Our nation is now poorer because it costs so much more to produce the same things. While at the same time the only growth in GDP or Jobs has been in the public sector. The only private sector jobs added were part time, but why? Because businesses are "paying far more for the same labor" only Uncle Sam can afford to do that forever.
This increase in labor costs not only makes the products you buy more expensive, it makes the idea of exporting products impossible for many industries. We couldn't compete with developing nations as it was thanks to our high costs of production, now the wage difference is beyond ridiculous, making exports impossible and imports far more practical.
If not for cheap imports we would really be in huge trouble. Sadly those cheap imports, many of which are used in our own manufacturing, could be a thing of the past. That's if the protectionists and the money printers have their way.
Far too many economically illiterate Americans want to scapegoat China, when in fact they have been propping us up. They are eating our inflation, we send them inflated dollars and they send us cheap stuff. Our companies then use that stuff to make American products relatively affordable. Imagine what those products would cost if they had to pay double the price for the parts they get from China?
We blame Temu or TicTok and call for more tariffs or we demand China not be allowed to invest in American soil!
That's the thanks they get for providing us with all the cheap stuff American companies can no longer produce thanks to high taxes, regulations, unions, inflated money, etc. etc.
How is it bad for China to bring money to America, to create jobs here? It's good when Germany brings factories here but not China? It sure as hell turned out good that Toyota came to America, why not some Chinese car manufacturer who can build you a decent car for ten grand again? Are we really so afraid that China will do things better than we can?? That's some backwards American BS right there. We can only win by not allowing them to play? No, that just allows our companies to continue to provide poor service at high prices. Competition is good for consumers, not protectionism and the same is true in regards to the overall economy. More trade is better, less is worse, it's not more complicated than that.
Sadly most Republicans seem to be more than happy to scapegoat China. Rather than fixing our dollar, by ending the FED or by getting our massive spending under control, they prefer to point fingers and play the blame game. In reality, China is NOT to blame for our woes, we brought them on ourselves and we would be in much worse shape without them.
How long do you think China will continue to subsidize our economy with cheap products if we start in with this type of protectionist nonsense? Why should they accept our monopoly money if they can't turn around and buy something of value with it?
They don't need dollars to buy energy with anymore, they don't want it to buy our junk bonds that don't keep up with inflation, they don't need it to buy our overpriced products. Now they are being sent the message that if they invest our own Monopoly money in America directly, by building factories like Japan did, that they could be punished with laws forcing them sell at a loss, like they just did with TicTok?
On top of that we now admit to having troops stationed right off their coast. We keep sticking our nose into Taiwan and sending them mixed messages about independence as well.
I've said for close to a decade now that we are heading towards a bipolar world, with the US leading one block and China leading the other. China claims it will be multipolar, but whatever, my point stands. It's still the same US vs Them mentality. What we need is a Win Win mentality. Of course our Dear Leaders profit more from conflict, so they don't seem to care that the people profit more from cooperation.
Free Trade with all, entangling alliances with None. That alone would go a long way towards Making America Great Again. Massively limiting government spending, regulations and taxes, would fix the rest.
Liberty and prosperity will always go hand in hand, sadly the reverse is also true.
Economic depression is the inevitable result or lack of liberty created by protectionism. You are not richer because China isn't allowed to export their Ten Grand Electric to America, Elon Musk is though. Imagine if you could use a $7,500 tax break to buy that Chinese car? Cities would be full of them overnight and a lot of people would be driving one these instead of their old hoopties, that actually is adding to a lot of the pollution in the cities. They would certainly be happier and more productive and the cities would actually be cleaner, can't have that I guess.
Brad Smith
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I like everything here except the idea that a $7,500 government subsidy for EVs should still exist. Imagine if government got out of the subsidy racket, along with the tariff, regulation, tax, and asset forfeiture rackets.
It took awhile to get around to the real issues facing American business, and their workers too… taxes, compliance, regulations, and inflation. These are the real reasons that businesses headed for the exits marked, “China and the Little Dragons,” as far back as the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I remember, I was there, and I remember the deals cut by Reagan and his nemesis in name only, over in the House, Tip O’Neil. I remember the deal that was struck to pay for Ronnie’s military, by agreeing to borrow even more fiat, to fund every single pet project that democrats could dream up to fuel the largest increase in social programs since the mid 60s, and LBJ’s great society. That program, ‘The Great Society,’ which wasn’t actually all that great, but was very socialistic, combined with LBJ’s penchant for lining his pockets with laundered money from government contracts to stop dominoes from falling in S.E. Asia.
That combo; undeclared war in Vietnam, and the Great Society, was just the kind of economic one two punch, (a combo that could make even Muhammad Ali flinch like a third grader,) that put America on the road to financial ruin. Only Paul Volker had the kind of cajones necessary to raise interest rates to the Moon, and get Americans to start saving their money in banks again. Without it, America would still have been on the skids to this day, and Tip O’Neil would have never gotten monthly checks into the hands of alcoholics, and Ronny Raygun would never have had an aircraft carrier named for him.
Ending the Fed just isn’t enough, lowering taxes on Americans and their businesses just isn’t enough, cutting out regulations and the bureaucratic malcontents who staff their offices just isn’t enough either.
A dagger needs to be plunged through the heart of every intelligence agency that has ever crawled out of foggy bottom, been created to take liberties with our constitution for the past 75 years, that’s what needs to be done. Maybe then it will be enough. Maybe then, when Americans can sleep assured again, with a wall safe full of gold backed currency, (electronic fiat or paper, it doesn’t really matter,) in their bedroom, with a 9mm under their pillow, and the knowledge that whether they book their vacation today, or in three months, the cost and the amenities will be the same, can we finally get back to a semblance of rationality.
Hell, maybe they’ll bring back the big block V-8s again, now that the helicopter mommies over at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the EPA, have been kicked out on their collective fat asses, (without a pension for ‘serving,’ the American people for a few, very few years, and when you and I don’t have to know beyond a doubt that every breath we take, or story we tell, isn’t downloaded on a water cooled, security locked, petabyte, crystal storage array, located just outside downtown Provo, UT., or Foggy Bottom is just another neighborhood with lots and lots of vacant lots.
“Wanna Make America Great Again?” Then Make Foggy Bottom Flat Again.