This is very specific, but no doubt the American way of life has depended on the “free” trade of goods with other countries. This will be the most significant test of our current socioeconomic and political system. Certainly we have already lost much of our middle class in the past 4 decades. But I think it would be gutted if we impose heavy duties on Chinese imports.
I just traveled to Mexico and we certainly don’t have all of those car options. The anti-parasitic we got for $35 isn’t even available (Loxcell) in the US (the substitute is incredibly expensive, $400) and requires a prescription only after you go through many dr.s appointments to find out what exact parasite you have (it has to be id’d successfully too). We bought 6 doses, no prescription needed (just in case). Likely many Americans (due to this) are walking around with parasites. It’s apart of the system. The cars, the phones, the building materials, all of these things are basically there only because we have carefully curated a list of items available to Americans, and everything else is banned in some way or another. (BYD Dolphin?).
The big problem is that American manufacturing charges an insane amount of money for their products. Many products we can find for less then $100 made overseas would cost many 100’s or 1000’s of dollars if they were made in the US. The wages we make only exist as an abstraction of the purchasing power we would have if trade were basically close to free. If that changes, it would change the foundation of our economic system.
In general my opinion on tariffs on US Chinese goods is, “ do we have too?”
Vote Biden he is slightly less bad on this issue. Still bad tho.
2 comments
This is very specific, but no doubt the American way of life has depended on the “free” trade of goods with other countries. This will be the most significant test of our current socioeconomic and political system. Certainly we have already lost much of our middle class in the past 4 decades. But I think it would be gutted if we impose heavy duties on Chinese imports.
I just traveled to Mexico and we certainly don’t have all of those car options. The anti-parasitic we got for $35 isn’t even available (Loxcell) in the US (the substitute is incredibly expensive, $400) and requires a prescription only after you go through many dr.s appointments to find out what exact parasite you have (it has to be id’d successfully too). We bought 6 doses, no prescription needed (just in case). Likely many Americans (due to this) are walking around with parasites. It’s apart of the system. The cars, the phones, the building materials, all of these things are basically there only because we have carefully curated a list of items available to Americans, and everything else is banned in some way or another. (BYD Dolphin?).
The big problem is that American manufacturing charges an insane amount of money for their products. Many products we can find for less then $100 made overseas would cost many 100’s or 1000’s of dollars if they were made in the US. The wages we make only exist as an abstraction of the purchasing power we would have if trade were basically close to free. If that changes, it would change the foundation of our economic system.
In general my opinion on tariffs on US Chinese goods is, “ do we have too?”
Vote Biden he is slightly less bad on this issue. Still bad tho.