Made In The USA
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Heard Trump speaking on manufacturing yesterday. What he's proposing...
Crafting policy and laws promoting:
- Cheaper energy.
- Cheaper corporate taxes.
- Tariffs on certain items not made in America
- Promoting tax breaks for plant construction or refurbishment.
- A crackdown on illegal aliens working in manufacturing and processing plants.
To paraphrase Trump, no matter where your business is located, we want you to manufacture your products in America and we are going to create incentives for you to do so, as long as you hire Americans and legal immigrants.
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If person A is good at making product X but bad at making Y, whereas person B is good at making product Y but bad at making X, then it makes sense to trade. It doesn't make sense for both to produce both.
That doesn't change when you replace persons by countries.
Some protectionism may be warranted if the trade conditions are unfair, but as a general principle, protectionism just makes everybody poorer.
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The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean? The US is already a net exporter of "fossil fuels". Oil production is up 20% or so over the last 4 years. etc. Oil production is at a record high. Natural gas production is up about the same %. Also at a record high. Coal is not coming back. Maybe nuclear power, but it is not like you can flip a switch and restart a plant like that.
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The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean? The US is already a net exporter of "fossil fuels". Oil production is up 20% or so over the last 4 years. etc. Oil production is at a record high. Natural gas production is up about the same %. Also at a record high. Coal is not coming back. Maybe nuclear power, but it is not like you can flip a switch and restart a plant like that.
@taiwan_girl said in Made In The USA:
The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean?
It means he’s doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
-Cormac McCarthy -
The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean? The US is already a net exporter of "fossil fuels". Oil production is up 20% or so over the last 4 years. etc. Oil production is at a record high. Natural gas production is up about the same %. Also at a record high. Coal is not coming back. Maybe nuclear power, but it is not like you can flip a switch and restart a plant like that.
@taiwan_girl said in Made In The USA:
The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean?
Bring back slavery and NO crackdown on slave labor in coal mines.
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The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean? The US is already a net exporter of "fossil fuels". Oil production is up 20% or so over the last 4 years. etc. Oil production is at a record high. Natural gas production is up about the same %. Also at a record high. Coal is not coming back. Maybe nuclear power, but it is not like you can flip a switch and restart a plant like that.
@taiwan_girl said in Made In The USA:
The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean?
It's the same as "Lowering Costs."
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@taiwan_girl said in Made In The USA:
The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean?
Bring back slavery and NO crackdown on slave labor in coal mines.
@Axtremus said in Made In The USA:
@taiwan_girl said in Made In The USA:
The one I have a comment on is #1 "cheaper energy"
What does that mean?
Bring back slavery and NO crackdown on slave labor in coal mines.
No, Dems already own that policy with the Haitians.
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Tariffs work to move manufacturing back to the USA, but it just means we pay more for everything.
Also, does Trump understand how Tariffs work, or perhaps I don't. From someone summarizing this on reddit:
For those that are confused about tariffs, the IMPORTER does pay the US Government the tariff amount. Let's say a company decides to import LVT flooring from China. If that costs $10 per box, they would have to pay the US Government $2.50 in order to bring that into the country. So now this company paid $12.50 for that box of flooring planks. At no point in this exchange does China, or the manufacturer in China, pay this tariff. It is the American company paying it, and then passing it along to the US consumer.
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If person A is good at making product X but bad at making Y, whereas person B is good at making product Y but bad at making X, then it makes sense to trade. It doesn't make sense for both to produce both.
That doesn't change when you replace persons by countries.
Some protectionism may be warranted if the trade conditions are unfair, but as a general principle, protectionism just makes everybody poorer.
@Klaus said in Made In The USA:
If person A is good at making product X but bad at making Y, whereas person B is good at making product Y but bad at making X, then it makes sense to trade. It doesn't make sense for both to produce both.
That doesn't change when you replace persons by countries.
Some protectionism may be warranted if the trade conditions are unfair, but as a general principle, protectionism just makes everybody poorer.
That only holds up until you are talking about industries and products crucial to national security.
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@Mik said in Made In The USA:
Keeping your citizens gainfully employed is important too.
Otherwise they may become economic migrants and go find work in foreign countries. Canada still hasn't build a southern border wall. US passport holders still enjoy visa-free entry privileges in most countries.
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I think it is good to have more manufacturing in the US, but for the vast majority of people, they vote with their wallets when purchasing.
Made in China = 1 cost
Same product made in USA = 1.2 costAdd a tariff to Made in China, the price increases to 1.2 cost. Now it is equal to the Made in US price.
It is not like the price of the Made in US product will go down. People will then complain about how price of product X went up.
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I dunno where I stand on this. I'm not a fan of government management of the economy - be it through subsidies, tariffs, price controls, whatever. It always goes wrong (high fructose corn syrup), probably doesn't do what you want it to in the long run and just gives an inefficient actor control of the economy.
On the other hand - giving people a path to good jobs that don't require advanced degrees is important. I dunno if tariffs are the best way to do it.
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Frankly, I kinda agree with the guy from McGregor Metals. American Labor generally sucks. American Cars are the most unreliable, American Electronics are unreliable, and if I see the Union Label, I can pretty much guess that it’s crap.
We bitch about outsourcing our factories to 3rd world countries, but generally they do a better job. The alternative now seems to be instead of sending our factories to the 3rd world, to import the 3rd world for our factories… That’s not a great solution, either.
Until we build a pride on our young men and women for the value of labor and a job well done, I don’t know that there’s a solution.
In the meantime, my next car will likely be Japanese. If that means I pay more, so be it. It will still be cheaper in the long run.
The Brad
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True, national security is another valid exception.
But the default should be: Trade is good! It's literally win-win.
@Klaus said in Made In The USA:
True, national security is another valid exception.
But the default should be: Trade is good! It's literally win-win.
Not quite. Fair trade is good.
Example... The Gilmann family operated a number of sawmills in NE Florida and a paper mill close to Fernandina. As the original brothers died out, the paper mill was shut down. The sawmills were sold to West Fraser. Now, WF is using the IP approach to the sawmills, run them into the ground and then close them.
They've closed one sawmill last year, and just announced the closure of a second. Those closures truly hurt the rural areas of NE Florida...Especially since they have a buttload of pine timber in that part of the world.
There are still some paper mills in the area, but pulpwood brings a lot less money to the land owner than timber.
Florida is booming. Tons of residential construction. High demand for lumber. So why is Fraser shutting sawmills down? And you still see railcars loaded with Fraser lumber rumbling through Florida.
Wonder if it's Canadian timber/lumber? And is Canada allowing them to dump it on the U.S. market? Or does Canada even know about it? Or is it covered by a trade agreement?
I don't know, but it doesn't make sense that it's cheaper to cut and mill a tree thousands of miles away, when there are trees within spitting distance. And Americans need the jobs.
