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I don't think they would have to wait long. First off, most new clothing that I've seen lately is all made in Central America, not China. Secondly, I happen to believe that if we had too, we could ramp up manufacturing to replace China as a supplier rather quickly, both here at home and in places like Mexico and Central America. We did it in WWII, where we started with very little and were soon pumping our planes, tanks, ships, guns, etc by the thousands every day in a few short years. Hell, a trade war with China might be the best thing we could do for ourselves, if not in the short term, but certainly in the medium to long term. Again, bring it on.
You are correct a LARGE amount of product we import is made on US made machines that are built here and shipped to China. We can just skip the last step and instead of shipping them to China just keep them here in the US.
The problem is Americans want everything cheap, they aren't willing to pay for American made products because they are more expensive yet we scream about the death of manufacturing.
And then on the other end we have unions and such which want their employees to be paid $90/hr for basic work with ridiculous health care plans. How are American manufactures supposed to compete on the global stage when our products will be much more expensive due to the cost of labor? The manufacture is stuck selling domestically (which Americans won't buy when they can get a cheaper product of equal quality made by a foreign company) with a much smaller market.
It doesn't and won't work.
Furthermore, we aren't a unified culture and people. We have no loyalty towards each other, we are becoming more separated with the massive influx of immigrants to this country.
You know a country where they wanted their own domestic industry and wanted to make, product, everything for themselves and be completely self-sustaining? National Socialist Germany. It would have worked there too because their goal was a people unified in body, culture, land, etc.
What is happening to USA is what happened to Great Britain when at the peak of its economics success since World War 2 it ignore the changes that takes place around the world. USA is able to overtake the economics power from Great Britain, due to success from competiveness from automobile industries to machinary automations, business to financial management, computation to commercialization.
Now, the new order in the world is Globalisation where changes is so fast pacing that if USA couldnt and wouldnt to adapt to that order, it would lose out to competitiveness offered by developing countries. Even Japan in the 80's was a threat to USA economic successes as it has been buying corporations and buildings from New York to Los Angeles and Detroit. Remember the time of Sony Walkman, Panasonic VCR, Honda gas savvy and Toyota consumer sexy. At that time, Japan has virtually won over in technology over USA and invaded and capture the USA consumers states!
And just like the decline of Japan and great Britain, policies made to snub the indications by the politicians or policy makers would be the path of power decline.
So, the problem is not China but from the people, by the people of USA.
You are correct a LARGE amount of product we import is made on US made machines that are built here and shipped to China. We can just skip the last step and instead of shipping them to China just keep them here in the US.
Actually, that's not all true. The bulk of heavy industrial equipment is made in the US and exported to China, but the US has been for over a decade exporting the heavy equipment that is used to make manufacturing equipment. So XChina has ramped up their industrial manufacturing capability for producing the equipment they will need to surpass Us manufacturing ability. Its like at one time we may have made and exported trucks. Soon we started exporting the assembly line equipment to make the truck from our parts. Afterwards we started exported the manufcatuing equipment so they can make their own parts. Now we are selling them the large industrial equiopment so they can build their own industrial equipment. Shortly they will have everything they need and we have nothing to sell them.
One of our big contracts is to ship entire indutrial plants overseas, overnight. They don;t even have to wait for the boat any longer. excluding natural or raw material, there is nothing we manufacture that they don't have the machines and equipment to manufacture. And those equipment and machines can now be manufactured in their own country cutting out the US. It will benefit all if you start looking at the big picture and seing that as China picks up industrial manufaturing from the US, they are not only taking the jobs, and manufacturing awau from here, they have taken the equipemtn leaving us with fewer and fewer factories that can produce. If the SHTF and we needed to ramp up industrial production, we are hurting cause we sold china all the excess, unused machines.
Over the short term, a trade war with China could devestate the US economy.
The US has had a whosesale hollowing out of it's industrial/manufacturing sector in the last 20 years. A staggering 20,000 plants have closed. Much of what you buy from China you no longer manufacture. Your biggest employer is now a giant retailer that sells almost nothing but Chinese goods. 30% of all worldwide Chinese exports go to just one company........Walmart. That would a large number of layoffs and a huge increase in inflation.
Also, the US owes China trillions. How do you tell your banker to f-off and then come back tommorrow and ask for a yet another extention on your mortgage lest you be evicted? How do you tell your credit card company to screw off and yet turn around and ask them for an increase in your credit card limit?
Just 40 years ago China couldn't even feed it's people but now you owe it more than any country on the planet. A shocking and sad turn of events.
How do you tell your banker to f-off and then come back tommorrow and ask for a yet another extention on your mortgage lest you be evicted?
You don't, you say very nicely that you will hand him a check for the amount you owe him and that the money will simply be printed. US currency and the US national debt are two forms of the same thing. So you threaten him with hyperinflation. Trade war? Bring it on. We need to rebuild our manufacturing base. As you said but I didn't quote we don't have the manufacturing base anymore. That means we don't have the tax base from that manufacturing base as well with out that we will never balance the budget. We are spending $100k per second. We are borrowing $45K per second as well that is the US government I'm talking about.
China is now threatening the US with trade war if we decide to go ahead with trade policies in our own interest.
Perhaps a trade war with China is inevitable given the circumstances.
It is clear that China's growth and prosperity have come at the expense of US workers and jobs.
If politicians expect to be elected, they will have to, at some point, begin to do what is good for America, and that will no doubt anger the Chinese.
What will be the ramifications of this strained relationship going forward?
they have every right to. what we're doing is hypocritical, we both manipulate our currencies. this is the diplomatic equivalent of stamping our foot and screaming like a 6 year old.
they have every right to. what we're doing is hypocritical, we both manipulate our currencies. this is the diplomatic equivalent of stamping our foot and screaming like a 6 year old.
Do not both countries have a right to act in their own best self-interest?
I do agree however that the US is hypocritical in almost all of its policies.
After selling out the citizens for profit, the politicians now fear the political backlash coming as a result.
Their only option is to point the finger at outside entities and claim that the detrimental effects of free trade agreements are the fault of other countries.
The ongoing economic damage caused by policies designed to make money for Wall St. at the expense of the American people will, at some point, put enough pressure on Washington to do the only thing that will prevent internal revolution and a shift in the balance of power. That will be war.
China has been subsidizing taxes for their manufactures. If we increase tax on products made in China here, Chinese gov't also tries to increase their subsidized tax to keep lowing the prices of their products. Could US gov't do something to prevent them to do it ? They have more than 1 billion population who are willing to get paid so cheap, but not we are due to our costs of living.
Last edited by Nancy2011; 10-14-2011 at 10:26 AM..
Do not both countries have a right to act in their own best self-interest?
Of course. However, I don't think protectionism or a trade war is in America's best interests.
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