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It is utterly baffling to me that some Americans see the massive amount of free goods that they get as part of being the reserve currency with trade deficits, a

It is utterly baffling to me that some Americans see the massive amount of free goods that they get as part of being the reserve currency with trade deficits, and somehow think "hollowed out manufacturing" rather than all that cheap stuff we get. The rest of those countries that are manufacturing things are far far poorer, and desperate to switch to industry higher up in the value chain, where the US is. And a half-analysis of the situation, and a halfwit in charge of the country that thinks the trade deficit is like a budget deficit, and the US is throwing away the heart of its economic powerhouse over half understanding of the economy. It's truly breathtaking. Like watching Brexit on repeat. Just utter economic suicide disguised as strength.

deleted 1y ago
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trade2play 1y ago
Play it forward a half century. Physical productive capacity is gone. Your global competitor is the de facto production hegemon. Debt has ballooned, and you can’t fund welfare programs. A big chunk of your country’s assets are owned by foreign investors. But yes, you got a lot of cheap things before the music stopped.
- epistasis 1y ago
  Play it forward half a century and the US has climbed on to the next generation of industry while all those holding our debt are still trying to catch up, our economy has grown so much that the "debt" seems small, and we are far far more productive than the rest of the world still. The US has massive productive capacity in things where there's not enough supply and for which we gain a huge profit margin. We do not have massive productive capacity in cheap commodities with very low margins. This is a good thing. Switching our absolutely massive productive capacity into less productive jobs is a huge self-own. If we have key industries, like food and computer chips, we subsidize them at a tiny tiny relative cost to the rest of the far more productive industries. A small chunk of our countries t-bills are owned by foreign investors, something like 25%, and the biggest holder, Japan, is something like 3%. We are not in danger of being owned by foreign controllers, especially as long as we keep outgrowing all the other countries by keeping our workforce in highly productive areas instead of less productive areas like sewing T-shirts or assembling consumer electronics. The biggest threat to our welfare programs, the biggest threat to the music stopping, is refocusing the workforce towards the industries of yesteryear. That's when we will stop outgrowing our debt and when we will face a world of hurt. And it's exactly where the masterminds in control are steering us right now.
RivieraKid 1y ago
They're not getting free goods and services, they are exchanged for debt, stocks, real estate.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

trade2play 1y ago

Play it forward a half century. Physical productive capacity is gone. Your global competitor is the de facto production hegemon. Debt has ballooned, and you can’t fund welfare programs. A big chunk of your country’s assets are owned by foreign investors. But yes, you got a lot of cheap things before the music stopped.

epistasis 1y ago
Play it forward half a century and the US has climbed on to the next generation of industry while all those holding our debt are still trying to catch up, our economy has grown so much that the "debt" seems small, and we are far far more productive than the rest of the world still. The US has massive productive capacity in things where there's not enough supply and for which we gain a huge profit margin. We do not have massive productive capacity in cheap commodities with very low margins. This is a good thing. Switching our absolutely massive productive capacity into less productive jobs is a huge self-own. If we have key industries, like food and computer chips, we subsidize them at a tiny tiny relative cost to the rest of the far more productive industries. A small chunk of our countries t-bills are owned by foreign investors, something like 25%, and the biggest holder, Japan, is something like 3%. We are not in danger of being owned by foreign controllers, especially as long as we keep outgrowing all the other countries by keeping our workforce in highly productive areas instead of less productive areas like sewing T-shirts or assembling consumer electronics. The biggest threat to our welfare programs, the biggest threat to the music stopping, is refocusing the workforce towards the industries of yesteryear. That's when we will stop outgrowing our debt and when we will face a world of hurt. And it's exactly where the masterminds in control are steering us right now.

RivieraKid 1y ago

They're not getting free goods and services, they are exchanged for debt, stocks, real estate.