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Edited on Fri Oct-26-07 02:59 AM by AdHocSolver
Manufacturing is the source of all real wealth. A country that cannot maintain an even trade balance is eventually going to collapse. The one-way trade flow hurts only the American people, the corporations still make their profit.
The corporations will tell you that everyone benefits from "free" trade. That is a bald-faced lie. The only way to save the United States from economic collapse is to rebuild our manufacturing infrastructure and create jobs here in America. The only way to bring jobs here is to change the import laws and tariffs, as well as the Federal tax code, so as to make it unprofitable to import goods that can be made here in America.
As the OP pointed out, our trading "partners" all have import restrictions and their economies are booming. When we are told by the government that they are trying to open up trade with Japan and China, that is a lie also because the corporations make plenty of profit with the status quo. Only the American people suffer for it and obviously we don't count.
The fact that many Japanese branded cars are manufactured here in the U.S. and are affordable and higher quality than many G.M., Ford, and Chrysler products, which are made wholly or in part overseas, puts the lie to the multinational corporations claims that they can't make a profit unless they make their products overseas.
The economy consists basically of the "circulation" of goods and money. Currently, our "economy" is purchasing goods basically on credit, since we have no comparable value of goods to sell to other countries. The capitalists have essentially been selling America's assets to foreigners to subsidize this spending spree.
As the value of the dollar declines, our creditors can expect that what they are repaid with will be worth a lot less than what they loaned us. The foreigners have already bought into so many American companies, that what is left to sell off is coming to be worth less and less. Moreover, since we have so little manufactured goods to sell, at some point our economy is going to collapse. That is why many countries are beginning to demand payment in Euros, or Yen, or Yuan (sp?).
One other lie to expose. The free traders will tell you that goods made in America cost more. We are saving you money by buying cheaper made foreign goods. Not So. Imported goods would be a lot cheaper than they are if the corporations passed along cheaper labor costs to the consumer. They do not. The companies merely pocket the savings from cheaper labor costs as profit.
This hurts America in two ways. First, it creates a class of unemployed or under employed people who have little money to spend within the U.S., spending which would support other American jobs. Second, people who don't work don't pay income taxes or Social Security taxes. This increases the Federal deficit and means higher taxes or degraded infrastructure in the future...or economic collapse.
Conservative economist Kevin Phillips wrote a book titled "Wealth and Democracy" in which he describes the collapse of many empires of the past, including the Roman, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and British. They all failed for similar reasons: Outsourcing jobs to colonies for cheap resources and labor, destroying their own middle class in the process, and using up their country's wealth in supporting a bloated military that was involved in endless warfare to hold on to these colonies from native uprisings or foreign competition. Does any of this sound familiar?
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