4 ms·
Yeah, I agree that in general tariffs and other trade barriers are in general a net negative for the economy (and I think this is/was the case in all developed
by qwytw 5y ago
Yeah, I agree that in general tariffs and other trade barriers are in general a net negative for the economy (and I think this is/was the case in all developed countries). But I just don't see any other way high wage jobs could have been maintained in the manufacturing sector, with a simultaneously shrinking demand and an increasing supply in the labor market. Of course that would be at the cost of the consumer.
- bobthepanda 5y agoI just think that high wage manufacturing was more of a historical aberration than a sustainable long term trend. The US emerged from the war as the only Western power without a shattered manufacturing base. By the times the '70s rolls around this is no longer true; Germany and Japan are now alternate sources of manufacturing for non-US countries so the current account surplus is no longer there. This is ultimately what led to Bretton Woods' collapse; it wasn't that imports were necessarily flooding into the US, it's that the US ceased to be the only source of manufactured goods in the world. The oil embargo further walloped American manufacturing, particularly automakers which had (and have) relatively gas-guzzling models compared to international carmakers. Even if we had high tariffs manufacturers would've figured something out, like how Boeing and some automakers have shifted jobs over the years to the less unionized south. Some of the biggest Ford plants on this list are in Kentucky and Missouri: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ford_factories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ford_factories