[–] cyclops1771 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
The USA still has tariffs and duties on some items.
It really doesn't matter, though, as until we begin saving and not spending, we're fucked as a country. And if we DO start saving and not buying on credit, we will drop into a depression. And then the bigger banks that can handle a few years of staggering losses will own more and more of the property of the country, creating a de facto new aristocracy and feudal / serf system.
[–] cyclops1771 ago
True, it forced the middle class into a spiral of debt. That and the push for more and more housing loans, and ever larger homes. I mean, the middle class of 2 generations ago (pre-Boomer) would live in a 3 bedroom home with 4 kids. Parents had a room, 2 kids to a room. Why does every kid need their own room? It makes them anti-social, and creates their own "safe space." Look what that has done to us!
But I digress. Remove jobs, put pressure on families, force debt spending, planned obsolescence, throw away society with cheap plastic crap, and that purchase that would have been a ten year purchase 40 years ago is now a repeatable one every 3-4 years. 2.5 the spend for the same item. It is no wonder we are in the hole we are in.
[–] JohnPaulJones 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Sounds like an overly complicated scheme aimed at creating government power. Sounds like a lot of the government picking winners and losers. Sounds like just the idea a democrat would come up with.
Maybe I'm missing some thing here as this is the first I've heard of this concept so five minutes of quick research but this is my gut feeling.
I prefer mirror tariffs among nations of similar economic status and no poverty farming.
I'm confused as to whether balanced trade is an idea co-opted by the dems, or if it is truly worth pursuing. If it is the former, then I will no longer entertain it, but if it is the latter then I feel it's a good way to stop the redistribution of American wealth and income and labor arbitrage.
[–] JohnPaulJones ago
I've honestly never heard of this idea before now but I just don't know how it could be implemented without massive government interference in the economy. Don't get me wrong our trade deficit is a huge problem but I don't know that this is the solution.
[–] daskapitalist ago
"balanced trade" is just a euphemism for handouts to inept domestic businesses who dont want to compete with superior foreign goods. So seriously folks, stop circlejerking "muy middle class" and focus on producing high tech products that you have a comparative advantage on like shale oil, aircraft, software, and medical goods, rather than worrying about some high school dropout factory worker who isnt willing to skill up.
[–] 8Ball [S] ago
So trade deficits are good? And the middle class should be decimated on purpose?
[–] daskapitalist ago
Trade deficits are only a problem if you're holding to the long-discredited concepts of Mercantilism like it's still 1750 and you want to build up stockpiles of gold/silver to fund your next war.
Think of trade deficits this way: If you make $100,000 a year because you're exceptionally productive, and your neighbor makes $50,000 a year because they're less productive, do you stand around wringing your hands in worry if you spend more than your neighbor? Of course not, because your greater income effectively gives you more disposable income than your less productive neighbor.
In regards to the middle class, they've been shrinking largely due to moving into higher income brackets (go check the data, the media is loath to report on this). The portions of the middle class who have shrunk are semi-skilled labor who were under the delusional impression that they could stick with the same skillset they had in the 1950s and still breeze through life, which isnt the case. Why this is the case should be obvious - WWII no longer has the rest of the world's manufacturing base left as a bombed out ruin, so competition is greater.
TLDR: Trade deficits only matter if you dont have a huge GDP per capita lead, and the middle class shrinking is largely driven by wage growth in high skill positions pushing people up.