Thread: A Year Without 'Made In China'

That's interesting information, manlyva. Also, the fact that they manipulate their currency is another way that they are getting away with murder. WHY is it that they are getting special favors???

I bought a Geo-Safari which is a board game for my 7-year old for Christmas. Damn thing is made in China and I have to take it back because it doesn't work right.

What I don't understand is the fact that we made such a big ordeal about having nothing to do with communist Soviet Union, yet with the communist China, we gave them that stupid status and on top of that, we are paying their import tax?? Sounds like we were threatened at one point by China and we are bending to their threats. What else can it be?
Could someone explain why we deal with a communist nation who has every intention of undermining our way of life? Our government, if they had any guts at all, should stand up to China and tell them, no more imports into our country until you prove to the world that you observe human rights in the work place and everywhere else, and that you pay your employees a fair and competitive wage. Of course, I guess I'm just dreaming.

I can see right now that I'm just going to have to go without some things if I have to buy something that is made in China. This is not right. To hell with WalMart.

Like you, I am having a really hard time figuring out WHY this administration, and others as well, are so hell-bent on dealing with China too. And, this administration, in particular, seems worse than the others in that they seem to have NO PROBLEM with the fact that CHINA owns most of our DEBT. I'm no economics specialist but it seems to me to be a DANGEROUS situation when a Communist country that is spending BILLIONS of dollars on building up their military, who has THREATENED us about Taiwan and who manipulates the currency to OWN OUR DEBT. I still wonder what is gonna happen when they decide to call that debt.

Not to be funny about this Bootsie...but they will probably send more illegal immigrants to further destroy this country of ours...Mexico and South America isn't the only country sending infiltrators to this country.

Oh, that wouldn't surprise me ONE BIT. The more, the merrier so the rest of the WORLD thinks!

Manlyva, thank you for one more piece of the puzzle.

It is true that things started showing up even back in the 60's that said "made in china" on them. It is only more recently when laws passed that said that they have to tell where a product is made somewhere on the product that it came to light just how MUCH stuff comes from china.

Things are never cut and dry enough to blame on one person or on one administration. It seems that each successive administration compounds the problems created by the ones who came before him.

I am, at heart, an isolationist. I have seen enough of other countries over the past fifteen or twenty years to know I don't want to live in any of them. Most of all a third world nation. For our own government to capriciously do things that will ultimately cast us into third world status is intolerable.

manlyva,
Thanks for the info. I wasn’t aware of that either.

Our nation survived well for nearly 200 years without a trade deficit and Federal Income Taxes because we used tariffs to run our country and we exported more than we imported. Several administrations have destroyed that and it is time to work back towards it.

I read somewhere that in the 1960s are tariffs were lowered. And of course at the same time, laws were changed to increase immigration.

I found this website which makes a good case for tariffs in pursuit of "balanced trade".
http://www.saveamericanjobs.us/sa-jd-sp ... rade.shtml

Since Red China has the greatest imbalance of trade, 124 billion dollars in 2003, we should apply a ten-percent balancing tariff on their total value of exports. In 2003 this was 152.4 billion dollars.

If ten percent were not sufficient, it would be increased to 15 percent then 20 percent and increased until the balance of trade is obtained. A tariff of 20 percent would provide the U.S. government with 30.5 billion dollars in 2003.

America imported products and services valued at 1.259 trillion dollars in 2003. This produced a trade deficit of 535 billion dollars. A ten-percent tariff on this would have provided the government with 126 billion dollars.

Select your favorite government program; Drugs for the Needy, Education, Social Security, Medicare, National Defense, Reducing the National Debt or Reducing Income Taxes, etc. Here are the funds.

If American purchasers choose not to buy Chinese products at the higher prices, good. BUY AMERICAN. This will put the American factories and their employees back to work.

The tax revenue to the government will also increase because American workers and American companies who manufacture the product have paid income taxes, social security taxes and medicare taxes.

Just placing the duty on Red Chinese products will send a strong message to all the other nations: You will be next. America is serious about balanced trade. Start buying American products.

Owners and managers of United States factories will see the prospects of growth and profits. They will begin hiring and investing in plants and equipment.

Then all Americans will prosper.

I think "balanced trade" is better than the often heard proposal of "fair trade".

For one thing, other countries like China not interested in "fair trade". Their goal is to have policies that act as a "tractor beam" to suck in all U.S. industry. So, there's no way we'll be able to persuade the Chinese government to change.

Also, even if China allowed labor unions, and higher standards for working conditions, unemployment insurance, etc, the labor would still be cheaper for decades to come. This is just because there are more than 100 million people who need jobs. They have a nearly inexhaustible supply of cheap labor. Even if they had good environmental standards, I don't think that would be enough. Or allowed their currency to float.

For example, the GM parts spinoff Delphi is paying their Chinese workers $3/hr compensation (including benefits). That is just so much lower than what any American could live on.

This is why we need "balanced trade", not "free trade" and not "fair trade". We need tariffs.

People say that the Smoot-Haulley (sp?) tariff in the 1930s caused the Great Depression. But we had a huge trade surplus in the 1930s. Now, we have a huge trade deficit. So, I think tariffs are what we need today. We should just keep raising them until the industry & jobs come back to the U.S.

lost_mummy,
I agree, we do need a balanced trade. No trade agreement signed in the past 40-50 years has been fair trade. The communist only care to gain jobs for their people and have no problem taking them from democratic nations like the U.S. Many Chinese companies own plants in Mexico and CAFTA countries, so the recently passed CAFTA does nothing to stop Chinese imports. They simply have a different label on them.

The tariff system would put an end to their monopoly in the US Market, but unfortunately we voted to keep them in the WTO and they can complain to the WTO and not comply with Tariffs. Either disband the WTO or get them out of it and kick up the process. We can build factories quickly if need be and certainly raise the standard of living for blue collar workers.

JP,
Supposedly, we're only allowed to vote to withdrawal from the WTO once every 5 years. Earlier this year was the last opportunity.

But I think as a sovereign nation, we can withdrawal anytime we want to and then impose tariffs as high as we want. Other countries can complain all they want, but because we're a sovereign nation, there's nothing they can do, except retaliate in some way.

Still, I think any retaliation would be more sufferable than the status quo. We ran a trade deficit in food for the 1st time in 50 years in 2005. In 2004, we ran a trade deficit in technology for the 1st time.

As Paul Craig Roberts says, about all we have for trade surpluses are soybeans and scrap metal (and a few other minor products.)