The Trump tariffs

America today lacks infrastructure and a trained workforce, There needs to be a 10-20 year plan put in place, it's not something that you can set up overnight with a bunch of decrees.

In reality, America has the second largest manufacturing output in the world, and is perfectly poised to take down their largest competitor (who was completely built up by us and is utterly dependent on us).


The idea that the guy in second place, cannot overtake the guy in first place, is such defeatist bullshit it's 100% propaganda.
 
Nonsense, all can be made in America cost-effectively especially with automation.
So you believe every country can be 100% self sufficient? What is the point of even having trade then. Just make everything yourself and close the borders to foreign goods.

America needs to make more stuff than it currently does but its silly to think they should be 100% self sufficient and make everything under the sun. The flip-side of complete self sufficiency is higher costs and lower efficiency. There are always trade offs.


The whole point of trade is that countries specialize. Just as no individual can be excellent at everything no country can be excellent at everything. This goes back to basic economics such as Adam Smith and the wealth of nations, comparative advantage etc.

There is a still a place for trade. Besides with a gold standard based system it was different but under a full fiat system the USA must run a trade deficit to keep the dollar as the reserve currency. Although the current deficit is unsustainable and should be chopped in half.
 
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So you believe every country can be 100% self sufficient? What is the point of even having trade then. Just make everything yourself and close the borders to foreign goods.

America needs to make more stuff than it currently does but its silly to think they should be 100% self sufficient and make everything under the sun. The flip-side of complete self sufficiency is higher costs and lower efficiency. There are always trade offs.


The whole point of trade is that countries specialize. Just as no individual can be excellent at everything no country can be excellent at everything. This goes back to basic economics such as Adam Smith and the wealth of nations, comparative advantage etc.

There is a still a place for trade. Besides with a gold standard based system it was different but under a full fiat system the USA must run a trade deficit to keep the dollar as the reserve currency. Although the current deficit is unsustainable and should be chopped in half.
Yes, there is a place for trade. No, it's not possible for a country to make 100% of their goods internally.

And yet, it is possible for a country to offshore too much of their production, leaving their manufacturing sector and workforce gutted, and driving their trade deficits sky high. If this happens then protectionism is the necessary course to bring things back in balance.

Is the US in this kind of situation, with a hollowed out industrial sector and dangerously excessive trade deficits? I'd say it clearly is. Therefore, even if protectionism has its tradeoffs, it seems called for under the current circumstances.
 
The most important thing right now is to have American consumers buying more American goods. The 30% tariff on China will help increase that. Most of our goods will be for the domestic market so a 10% tariff by China isn't a huge concern. Our imports will decrease more than our exports.

This goes back to the point that it's not possible to replace most goods from low cost countries. You would have to raise tariffs to God knows how much? 500-1000 percent or even more. That's the difference in cost of labour. People can't buy American made shoes, they will have to pay more for shoes produced elsewhere, or at least the components of those shoes ets.
 
Good. I'm in the junk/recycling business. I sell used Made In USA goods from the 1940's to the 1990's when we (and Japan and Germany) made the best clothing, electronics, furniture, and tools in the world. This will make the demand for my stockpile of vintage and antique union made in USA goods and textiles go up in value. And do you know how much of this stuff is out there? It's too late to jump in the game now but I've been stockpiling USA made craftsman tools, 100% cotton/wool/mohair/cashmere/angora clothing (everything now is a blend sprayed with chemicals), electronics, and hard wood furniture for a decade waiting for these offshoring chickens to come home to roost. To hell with the made in China Walmart paradigm invented by the traitorous "Christian" Walton family who got in bed with the atheist commie Chinese government to make a quick buck at the expense of the high skilled American worker. Christians are no better than jews when they adopt jew greed and get rich quick financial schemes that reward bad behavior.

Americans are just going to have to atone for the easy years of buying cheap Chinese crap by paying more for higher quality, longer lasting made in USA products. The adjustment curve will be steep and painful but you reap what you sow. The good news is that Americans will have to tighten their belts very quickly and cut back on their addiction to over-consumption and mindless consumerism.

If that was the case then Trump should not have backtracked on the 145% tariffs! In fact he should have increased them. I wish he had the guts to stick to a policy for once! And again, if it was really hurting China, why backtrack? It's impossible to sell this a win for Trump, that's pure propaganda.
 
America today lacks infrastructure and a trained workforce, There needs to be a 10-20 year plan put in place, it's not something that you can set up overnight with a bunch of decrees.


This might need its own thread, maybe there is already a decline in education thread. I don't what kind of school she teaches in, but I think I have a few thoughts after listening to her.

First off, I couldn't help but notice how deep her voice is. I think Chateau Heartiste had a post about women's voices getting lower, and I was reminded of that. Second, I think she's correct when she says she's not cut out for teaching. She looks as young as a student, and like someone who had no difficulty in school. Back when I was in 10th grade in 2000, I was bored out of my mind in most of my classes. I also note that getting straight A's didn't translate into any real-world success for me and many of my peers. My most successful peer is still living paycheck to paycheck even though he's a senior software engineer, and he only became that because he was always a technology tinkerer. I suppose the other most successful peers were women who went on to become doctors. I am digressing fast here, aren't I? If I had a point, and sometimes I do, it's that what this young woman wants is for technology to be left outside the classroom so she can get on with her form of teaching. Despite being tech savvy herself, she can't adapt to present circumstances.

She would have quit teaching anyway if she were a 10th grade teacher back in 2000. High schoolers were still a pain in the ass and dumb as bricks. The past wasn't some kind of glorious educational fairytale. I also don't think it was ever fun to teach, even documents I read from the 40s that mentioned classroom discipline techniques made the kids sound like unruly monsters. There was never a time and place where kids and teenagers were docile and pleasant.

I think her complaints about technology are fair but I feel like I get dumber the more I use technology. It doesn't matter the age, we are all susceptible to the dumbing-down effects of shortform videos and social media. Taking technology out of the classroom won't do anything, as much as I agree it's at least something to attempt. Better would be showing kids how to moderate usage. I was bored almost all the time growing up in a rural area without internet or cable TV and it didn't turn me into some highly patient genius capable of sustained hard work. Boredom won't be an ally.

Also, I think she sounds like the poster-child for why women shouldn't be heavily involved in education. She isn't able to clamp down on the kids in the way a man could. She doesn't have much life experience beyond the classroom. There's no reason to respect her or take her seriously. She's also an English teacher, a subject women are terrible at teaching, and kids by 10th grade are probably sick and tired of hearing their whiny female teachers parrot everything out of teaching manuals. I honestly think women are about as effective at teaching as they are policing. It's their inability to be serious or be taken seriously. That's why they're good elementary teachers but bad middle and high school teachers and professors. The moment they try to be serious and authoritative they turn into a clown.

While kids aren't having any favors given to them by being hopelessly addicted to technology, they also won't have any favors given to them by uninspiring teachers, like this woman, showing them how to write a topic sentence and outline an essay. They need the harshness of a man making fun of them for being morons, someone who knows how cold and bleak the world can be, to instill in them a desire to achieve excellence. Someone who won't sound like a nagging girlfriend or mother.

I wanted to end this by saying, I think I notice the decline in reading comprehension. I finally left reddit behind and deleted my account because no one showed any capability in having a discussion about literally anything. I was wasting my breath, and thank God I don't feel that way about this forum. Many kids are going to be left behind, and we'll need boring, miserable factory jobs to return, because those are the only jobs they're qualified for, and it would be a fitting punishment to have to work at a factory when you had all the time in the world to maximize your education for something better. I've worked at a factory before and it made me miss my math classes. I didn't know what boring was until I had to stand at a machine doing the same thing for 8 hours.
 
She would have quit teaching anyway if she were a 10th grade teacher back in 2000. High schoolers were still a pain in the ass and dumb as bricks. The past wasn't some kind of glorious educational fairytale. I also don't think it was ever fun to teach, even documents I read from the 40s that mentioned classroom discipline techniques made the kids sound like unruly monsters. There was never a time and place where kids and teenagers were docile and pleasant.

That is not an argument for tech. That's an argument against having all your high school teachers be women in their 20s, fresh out of college.
 
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In reality, America has the second largest manufacturing output in the world, and is perfectly poised to take down their largest competitor (who was completely built up by us and is utterly dependent on us).


The idea that the guy in second place, cannot overtake the guy in first place, is such defeatist bullshit it's 100% propaganda.

There are several obstacles that would need to be addressed, here are some of the main ones:

-lack of qualified labor. Solution: create tuition-free technical institutes JCs offering internships along the German model, eliminate tuition for STEM program in college to provide access to bright working class kids

-US$ as fiat currency makes exports uncompetitive (Triffin dilemma)

-infrastructure issues - high costs of housing, transport, healthcare

This pundit Lyn Alden (smart trannie often featured on your favorite site Zerohedge) does a good job going over these issues:

 
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