Is America Slouching Towards Protectionism? »
Posted by: jovial 7 months, 3 weeks agoDeclining wages and the unchecked outsourcing of jobs are cause for concern in the United States. The doctrine of free trade, the core of US economic policy, is faltering. Has the age of protectionism begun?
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engineer7 months, 3 weeks ago
We have to put in some protectionism. The corporation greed will outsource us til we are a two tier society --- very rich and very poor!
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cowboygrandpa7 months, 3 weeks ago
JackofallChems: Well, yes he does. Thanks for asking.
It shows you have a capacity for at least asking an intelligent question.
Since you have shown a lack of any intelligent comments.
But hey don't worry we understand it is all the chemicals. They will do that to you. You really ought to try to stay away for the LSD. You know they say you see and imagine things on that stuff. Just like you imagine yourself witty.
Back off Jack, engineer is a decent well spoken man. You on the other hand are what is left after a failed experiment
it would seem.
I happen to agree with engineer. You don't BFD go play with your chemicals.
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Spadecaller7 months, 3 weeks ago
"Edwards rejected all American free trade agreements in recent years, even during the era of former President Bill Clinton, and he accuses the Bush administration of conducting a trade policy that exclusively benefits international corporations."
The Bush admin betrayed American workers with unfair trade policies.
NAFTA could have worked -- if fair trade (not free trade) was enforced and safeguards for quality production had been implemented.
The disappearance of the middle class is the consequence of Bush's elitist policies.
The use of the term "protectionism" is misleading. Instituting safeguards to make trading not just "free" but safe and fair for Americans would be a vast improvement. To use the bastardized term, "protectionism" as defined by greedy Republicans who care nothing about the working class in America makes for good spin. It's sad that so many middle class people have been duped by it.
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JackofallChems7 months, 3 weeks ago
Since you don't seem to be able to see the whole picture at once, I think it's only fair to point out that NAFTA was never supposed to 'work' at all - for the US, for Canada, and not even for Mexico. The only direction NAFTA was supposed to send money towards was China, because Mexico had no comparable currency manipulation scheme going and no businessman willing to export jobs would stand for $8/day as a pay rate in Mexico when it could go as low as $0.89/day in China after exchange rate kickbacks were figured in. The disappearance of the middle class in the US was and is a direct result of schemes and scams that benefit other countries at the expense of the US economy, and the middle class is where a shortage of value in business activities results in the most observable disadvantages. As for protectionism vs. fair trade, I'll let you guys figure out how to draw the line - if you can. I charge for 'good' advice that can really work, you see... ;-)
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nostalgia7 months, 3 weeks ago
US consumers must take some responsibility for all of this
If they didn't keep demanding AND buying the imported products jobs would not have left
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JackofallChems7 months, 3 weeks ago
Currency manipulation in the Far East started in the early '60s, and that means that a huge chunk of the US population actually could have heard about the 'disappearance of the middle class' for their entire lives. Spadecaller, however, is probably not the best source for real information on such a topic - he/she/it is still seeing the 1960s through the rose-colored glasses of a delusional, unthinking left-wing activist that never learned a thing about what the baby boomers did wrong (which is a rather extensive list).
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DarkWizard7 months, 3 weeks ago
jovial,
This is an excellent article and I will use this as a reference when discussing the current trends in business and economics.
GW cannot be blamed for the current dilemma, only the acceleration of it. Safeguards for "fair trade" should have been put into place after WWII, but America was on the top of the heap in international trade and didn't want to restrict itself.
The problem, as always, is in responsible governance and not necessarily in the concepts free or fair trade. Greed trumps all until it comes back to bite the hand that feeds it.
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DarkWizard7 months, 3 weeks ago
jovial,
It is always wise to have several perspectives to refer to and enough basic knowledge of the subject matter to assess those perspectives.
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canadianrancher577 months, 3 weeks ago
Darkwizard is right on when it comes to what happened after WWII, American companies that grew during the war continued to expand as they helped to fill in production that was lost in many countries that were destroyed by war. Germany was a great steel producer but the war ended that and many American companies benifited from this. The problem that arose from this was a very affluent society that priced itself out of markets because of the standard of living in your country, for the large companies to continue to grow they had to find ways of reducing costs and moved offshore and gave jobs to others. The countries that they moved to were able to advance themselves to some degree and become buyers which helped the companies. These large companies were now able to profit on two fronts, one selling to a new market, the second selling to the Americam market with a lower priced good. As people in the U.S. lost jobs the lower priced goods were allowed to flow in.(continued)
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JackofallChems7 months, 3 weeks ago
Somebody should come clean and admit that economics isn't just about trading (it's about working for the benefit of others), and that money isn't just a quick and intrinsically meaningless medium of exchange (it's a virtual storage device for work that benefitted others in the recent or not so recent past). After that, it's time to start talking about the big picture of how businesses are structured within an economic system and how such as system can be depicted from the outside. Then maybe we can all agree on what protectionism is and isn't.
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canadianrancher577 months, 3 weeks ago
Now for the part that will make most people mad. As I read the artical I saw that the blame is being put on others and the solution to this is to try and influence others to live by your rules and standards, once again it is an issue with the standard of living for the American Public, this has become a hot political issue but the solutions I saw in the artical will not work, the soulution is happening right now with the lose of jobs and a dropping dollar, until your standard of living comes down you will not be able to compete.
The saddest part of this is the companies and a certain few have become extremely rich at the expense of the American Public and this was done with the help of Government over many years.
One final though is that when the men who Wrote the constitution wrote it they should have made the practice of lobby a crime.
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hyperbola7 months, 3 weeks ago
Not just America rancher! What has happened recently in the US (welfare for corporate welfare queens - ever since Reagan) is not all that different to the divvying up of national wealth amongst "new magnates" in eastern europe. It is also not that different to corruption in Africa or Latin America where companies (including ours) "buy" government officials to guarantee their profits.
Ever wonder why bushie was so desperately opposed to the international treaty to do away with tax havens and international money laundering?
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crghss7 months, 3 weeks ago
Sorry you have this backwards. America has lead the way to ending international money laundering. The world has gathered to track money to help root out your buddies the terrorists. "tax havens" Nothing you can do to control how a country chooses to impose taxes.
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HMMace7 months, 3 weeks ago
With all our modern planes, that can circimnviagte the world..we need not set another boot on foriegn oil...if we are harmed, we can avenge ourselves without taking control of the country---just lay it waste..if any iranian, or Arabian harms us again---nuke them back to the middle ages...
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CaptainLucid7 months, 3 weeks ago
Huh? I thought this thread was about economics not brute force. Of course we can lay waste to any nation but that has nothing to do with our economics. So we nuke the middle east and earn the condemnation of the world. Think the Russians will like that? Think the EU will like it? Think China will like it? They all have nukes and none of them will like us. The reason, we destroyed the oil. Who wants to pump oil in the middle of a radiation zone? Do you want to put radiated gas in your car? Do you want to breath in the radioactive smog on the freeway? What are you going to think when your daughter gets born with 2 dlcks because you have been breathing nuclear smog too long? Congratulations on figuring out a simple but absolutely wrong solution to a very complex problem. You are awarded the neocon medal of honor.
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drpolyphemus7 months, 3 weeks ago
FREE TRADE? ASK THE CANADIANS? AMERICA HAS NEVER RESPECTED NAFTA OR ANY OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT. WE TORE UP THE BALLISTIC MISSILE TREATY, THE GENEVA CONVENTION, CHEMICAL WEAPONS TESTING BANS NAD EVERY OTHER POSSIBLE TREATY WE HAVE SIGNED. ALL TORN UP UNDER ONE PRESIDENT. THE DUBYA FOR WHICH WE STAND. AND IF IT HURTS TOO MUCH, WE WILL MOVE THE BANKS TO FOREIGN LANDS TOO!
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NelsonR7 months, 3 weeks ago
Free and balanced trade is a mirage.
Who cares now anyway, America is broke and bad times are ahead so if companies desire to continue investing overseas and outsourcing it's already to late.
A little bit of knowledge goes a long ways. Mr. Walker who is the chief accountant for the U.S. and oversees the General Accounting Office (GAO) for the Government said it quite bluntly tonight, "If the U.S. were a company they would be bankrupt today". Were broke folks yet many believe the tooth fairy is hovering over us. One of his comments was that in the year 2040 we will be in debt to the tune of 53 trillion dollars with ever household owing over 150,000 thousand dollars. Even with tax increases and cuts, Americans would never accept, the future is not a bright spot to leave your children. Thank you leaders and politicos that have made our life so sweet. PROTECTIONISM, A LITTLE TO LATE.
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CaptainLucid7 months, 3 weeks ago
We have 2 roads to salvation. The first would be to completely devalue our currency. Not like we are not half there with the loonie worth more than the greenback. You own 2 trillion of bonds? Fine here is 2 trillion of paper money. Not like its worth anything now. This would mean we would have no economic influence in the world any more. Everyone would treat us the way we currently treat third world economies. Option two is hold a liquidation sale and sell our country. That was the Reagan dream. That sucks too. Dumbass republicraps partied in the 80's on credit. We had a dem who made balanced budgets. Republicraps got ******ed and said we want another crack rock party like in the 80's. Everyone thought they made money. It was just a pyramid scheme that just busted. The ponzi founders have already walked off with their stock options and their isn't a thing the victems can do.
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Rinaldi1007 months, 3 weeks ago
Well now that everyone is acutally realizing what happend, as far as moving production out of the country, I'm sure to some people it feels like a bucket of cold water thrown on them while they are nice and warm in bed.
First thing to do is conserve the jobs that are already in the conuntry to minimize any futher damage, second thing to do is work on health benifits so the middle and lower class are not ripped apart by the medical and insurance establihment that seems to never have their appetite satisfied.
Next thing to do is to lay out the the way so that industrial jobs return to the states and give the opportunity to US citizens to earn a decent living.
And ordinary citizens can also contribute to the effort buy PURCHASING AMERICAN GOOD WHEN THEY CAN!!
A little bit more goes a long way! Don't just rely on washington to solve the problems, they live well, and many do not care at all weather you can pay a doctor or eat for that matter, but they could, get the point.
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Submitted By:
jovial
Grew up In Brooklyn. Joined the Navy in 1976 stayed in 10 years. Aircraft Electronics tech. Worked for Major Govt. contractor then settled in California ...
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