Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: Andrew111
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Originally posted by: Linflas
Too complex for a simple yes or no blanket answer.
Originally posted by: spidey07
For in some ways. Not flat out protectionism but incenting production of goods and services here instead of somewhere else is a good idea.
Agreed. I'm for some limited protectionism, and when countries use their laws to restrict the US selling goods in their nations, I believe we should then recriprocate and use those exact same laws for goods from that nation.
So you're fine with limited protectionism but don't like it when other countries do it to us? This is how it spirals out of control....when one country caves in to protectionist sentiment other countries do the same in return. The Great Depression is a fine example of why protectionism is utter stupidity and hurts everyone......trying to protect jobs/goods from your country but it led to an even more significant drop in global trade and made things much worse.
Protectionism is never good in the long run......some countries are simply better at manufacturing/producing specific products and it's folly to invoke trade barriers so your inferior products can compete. The economy would be much better off by simply moving to industries the country is better suited for instead of propping up ailing industries. It leads to loss of jobs in the short term from the ailing industry but leads to more jobs in better industries in the long term.
I'm sure all the folks who have lost good-paying factory jobs to China think that their McJobs are far better...
BUT, I'm glad to see that you caught my point...We have numerous protectionist laws used against us, why is it bad if we use the same laws against those nations?
Personally, I think the US would be a far better place if we'd quit importing so many cheaply made products from China and started making them here again. (cheap not only in price but quality as well) The USA used to build quality products...with the kind of quality that the workers were proud of...
I'm against protectionism.
One of the things that bothers me about people like you is that you are trying to paint a false picture where we don't have any protectionist laws and play completely fair while other countries do not. This is patently false.
Canada has in the past objected to our protectionist laws for our lumber industry. Our farming industry is heavily protected so poorer countries in Africa cannot compete.
As for our factory jobs leaving to China, I personally feel this is only temporary. In time, we will become competitive again and those factory jobs will return. The same thing was said about Japan -- if we don't buy American then the American car industry will collapse and all cars will be made in Japan. But what exactly happened? Japanese car companies built factories in the US and now supplies many Americans with good paying jobs.
Also, during this time another industry became very big -- the IT industry. When I was younger, I don't remember IT being a very big industry but now it seems every company has some need for an IT department which employs a lot of people. So, maybe the growth in IT jobs covered some of the loss of in industrial jobs during this period?
One complaint I heard about "American thinking" is that we think too much in the "short term" and not enough in the "long term". I think those who are for protectionism think too much in the "short term".