Originally Posted by Steve_NO
Will, no disagreement here on the weakening of the work ethic, the rise of a borrow and consume mentality, or the general coarsening of American culture.

But I disagree that a tariff wall will cure those problems, or even ameliorate them. That problem lies within our borders....in our devo society.



It is not a question of tariffs curing problems. It is a question of fair play and of national interest. The men who work in manufacturing have been getting SCREWED by tactics like the Value Added Tax and by state partial ownership and sponsorship of foreign companies.

And for decades our political elite have turned their heads away and said nothing. It is a disgrace.

And a damned good question for you might be why the countries that engage in these tactics are doing so much better than we are. We have been bleeding manufacturing jobs to these very same companies and countries that employ the tactics you, and those like you, say won't work. And then they use the money from the trade deficit to buy up our very own corporate infrastructure.

The real world says that limited protectionism works. And it works well.

Originally Posted by Steve_NO
Gadfly, we have just had four years of almost unprecedentedly low unemployment rates....so it hasn't been a national problem yet.


No we haven't.

We have had 'historically low' unemployment rates since they last changed the way unemployment was calculated under the Clinton administration. Right now we are running a little over 12% unemployment if you use the 'historical method', which is not a 'historically low' number.

Originally Posted by Steve_NO
I wish we would show more initiative in litigating against protectionist countries under the WTO, but tariffs won't turn back the clock to the time after the War when we were the only intact industrial collosus in the west.....that was a happy historical accident.


And why is that Steve?

Why is it that Ben Bernanke and GW Bush turn over heaven and earth to salvage the toxic mortgage backed securities and the dolts on Wall Street who bought and sold them, but do nothing to ensure that American workers go up against workers, companies, and countries that play by the same rules we do?

The Value Added Tax employed by countries like Japan and the European companies has been nothing less than a 15% import tariff on American goods.

China insists on partial ownership of most major corporate investments in their country. We trade with and enrich a communist entity every time we move a company to their shores.

And still these so called 'Free Trade' ideologues insist that American workers go up against this stacked deck each and every day. And not one damned one of them fights for American companies and workers.

It is a disgrace. It is worse than those moronic journalists who insisted on a 'neutral' stance in regards to the wars we are currently engaged in. They serve an ideology without a debt of gratitude or any type of loyalty to the system and country that nurtured them.

And if protectionist sentiment sweeps them all out of office and puts them and their Wall Street buddies bankrupt they have no one but themselves to blame. They could have insisted on a fair and free marketplace and instead allowed the people they are supposed to represent to be SCREWED in the name of Free Trade.

If what I have seen over the last 15 years is free trade brother you can have it. It is a stacked deck. The system is gamed. Tear it down.

Will

Smellin' a lot of 'if' coming off this plan.