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> is it that the trade war is so politically popular Biden has doubled down on Trumps trade policies to the extent that he appointed a Taiwanese-American trade
by nyokodo 5y ago
> is it that the trade war is so politically popular
Biden has doubled down on Trumps trade policies to the extent that he appointed a Taiwanese-American trade lawyer, Katherine Tai, as US Trade Representative. She has no experience brokering trade deals but lots of experience suing countries for trade violations. Anti-globalism is now bipartisan in America.
- echelon 5y ago> Anti-globalism is now bipartisan in America. Globalism is fantastic for business and stocks, but horrible for the American worker. Now dozens of countries can do what we can do, and our labor and talent is expensive. We eroded a lot of our capabilities to chase after higher value of being the final step in production. Now we see how fragile that makes us. And everyone is gunning to compete at our level.
- nicbou 5y agoI might understand this incorrectly, but doesn't it also mean that American businesses have a greater market to sell to? Globalism within the EU seems to work really well for Germany, even though there is far cheaper labour in the EU. I am way out of my depth here, so I could be wrong.
- echelon 5y ago> I might understand this incorrectly, but doesn't it also mean that American businesses have a greater market to sell to? "American" companies aren't always entirely owned by Americans. Sometimes they get purchased outright by foreign conglomerates or shareholders (eg. Anheuser-Busch) or take on foreign investment (eg. SoftBank). Once they're public, lots of entities can own the stock. Labor doesn't have to be based in the US. Wages go overseas all the time. Your iPhone is manufactured abroad. Amazon hires lots of non-American programmers.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoCompanies move to states with fewer labor laws and cheaper labor also. Is the only difference here that there is a possibility of federal tax revenue being distributed throughout one country? You can even go one more level down to cities and states rather than states and country.
- cocoafleck 5y agoMinimum wage is closer, environmental standards are somewhat similar, and laws can be passed on a federal level. It is just as easy for workers to change states as businesses while internationally it is easier for businesses to change locations than workers.
- xapata 5y agoNot so simple. People like cheap goods.
- satellites 5y agoI’d wager they like job security better overall, they just respond strongly to the flashy cheap knicknack in the moment. We really don’t need more cheaply made junk in the world.
- Fricken 5y agoAmerica chose Wal-Mart over main Street in the 90s. Cheap shit > good jobs.
- satellites 5y agoIn many areas of the country, the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction. Malls are dying and downtowns are rising again. America chose Wal Mart and then regretted it. The death of Main Street and the associated economic insecurity was a contributing factor to Trumpism, even if the people voting that way didn’t explicitly realize it.
- nescioquid 5y agoMore like cheap jobs make cheap shit from Walmart attractive.
- panick21 5y ago> Globalism is fantastic for business and stocks, but horrible for the American worker. Often claimed, hard to prove. In fact, isolating your economy to protect increasingly ineffective industries is the exact opposite of what is good for the avg. worker. It sure helps those industries that are specifically. protected. > We eroded a lot of our capabilities to chase after higher value of being the final step in production. Now we see how fragile that makes us. And everyone is gunning to compete at our level. And the solution to this is exactly not to try to use restrictive trade policies.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago>Now dozens of countries can do what we can do You couldn't stop that, the rest of the world was going to catch up one way or another.