I think the fact that the US often has a trade deficit with other countries is a sign of our economic strength.
People have this obsession with manufacturing... how many goods the US produces... but we don't exist in the 1950s anymore. The world is different.You know this, you got an advanced degree.
Even if I were to accept the premise that the US trade deficit with various countries is a bad thing, you would need to explain to me how Trump's tariffs will reduce the trade deficit, and how that would be worth it from a broad perspective(economic and otherwise... Canada is an ally).
Reducing the trade deficit via Trump's tariffs could have economic consequences that make it not worth it. That's what I'm hoping for. I want Americans to suffer as a result of Trump being president... otherwise there's no lesson learned.
1. Yes. It's a sign that our consumer market is exceptional and highly valuable. So what does that mean for the US then? That means we should have highly favorable trade deals and be able to influence those trading relationships how we see fit. It's the same concept as in business. If one client literally buys 30% of all your goods, guess what? That client can quiet literally dictate who they like as CEO, how the want the product created, if the want to allow you to trade with their competitors and so on. You cater to that client. We are that client. So if we go to the seller and say hey you need to do something about immigration or cartels, they say sir how high do we jump.
2. No it's not the 1950s and only a simple person expects we will bring back that era. That doesn't mean we should accept the outcome and produce nothing here. I already posted a few times why manufacturing jobs are important and how in reality they have a much higher multiplier effect on an economy compared to service jobs. Literally all advanced countries around the globe obsess about manufacturing jobs. China subsidizes its manufacturing to be able to outcompete its peers. Germany is highly protectionist with its car industry and is highly fixated on its health. So is Japan about maintaining its manufacturing, particularly of high tech like Fabs. So is Taiwan with Taiwan semi, so is South Korea obsessed with LG, Sony & their other manufacturers so are the Dutch with ASML or with their drugs manufacturing, i mean the list is endless. Literally all these countries want to have a manufacturing base and none simply accept the outcome that all these jobs are going to end up somewhere else. So if they behave like this, why the fuck should the US just accept being cucked? And again, that doesn't mean the US will start making t-shirts or start making cheap electronics sold at Walmart, but it does mean that we are serious about high industry building their plants here and creating the jobs here. Toyota, Taiwan Semi, dozens of other of high tech industries should absolutely be strongly encouraged (both through carrots such as lower corporate taxes and sticks such as tariffs) to make stuff here. We should not just accept being consumers, we should demand investment via jobs/plants, etc from these companies if they want to sell their stuff here.
That's the difference between you and I. I want Americans to succeed and be affluent and i don't really care if it happens under a Democrat or Republican. You're so obsessed with Trump, that you'd rather see fellow Americans suffer so as to be proven right that he was bad after all? Completely unhinged behavior. I don't know how these tariffs pan out but it's pretty obvious that this country has been on an unsustainable path. Spending matters, the debt matters, the deficit matters, lobsided trade as trade partners rip off the US by devaluing their currencies matter, dollar debasement matters, domestic jobs matter. I rather someone like Trump try and fail instead of pretending all these issues don't exist and for my kids to inherit an even shittier country.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Feb 3 2025 07:56am