(01-25-2018, 09:19 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote:

(01-25-2018, 06:53 AM)EricC85 Wrote: No not at any cost but not selectively leveling the playing field.

I'll use an industry I'm very familure with for an example. I sell Tires along with other auto services for a living. I work for an American Tire company that makes roughly 75% of their tires domestically. They sell tires advertised at a higher quality but sometimes 2-3x the cost of foreign cheaper tires offered. It's a multi-billion dollar company they have no problem justifying price for product in direct competition every day, sure we lose some of the lower end market but there's ALWAYS going to be the shopper that just wants the cheapest product possible that's fine, they don't buy my Tires or our services. 

using the state to level the playing field isn't controlling the market, it's manipulating through taxes. Again the problem is real, addressing through selective taxation is the wrong way to do it.

No, barriers to entry permit us to enforce our values (human dignity, fair wages and labor practices, quality products) on those who would participate in our markets. Those cheap prices come at the expense of human rights, permitting them access to the world's most powerful and robust market only exacerbates that problem.

Apparently this is more than a 2-sided question.   I have a different point of view from both of you. 

I don't think imported tires are of lower quality than American made tires.   But that's beside the point.  

Secondly, if a person wants to buy imported tires, they should have that right.  And I don't think restricting imported tires would have any effect whatsoever on the human rights of the overseas countries where those imported tires were made.  

But let's suppose that we did restrict cheaper imported tires.   Now everyone who needs new tires has to buy more expensive American made tires.   Because of this, people drive longer on old tires instead of getting new ones.  Fewer tires get sold and installed.   Raise the price, reduce the demand.  So fewer tires sold, fewer jobs at tire stores and fewer jobs at tire installers. 

The problem is, things that benefit society as a whole are much harder to see than things that benefit a particular special interest.   People say, for example, we need to restrict the inflow of cheap steel from overseas to save American steel jobs.   It's easier for people to see that we saved some jobs at a steel mill than it is for them to see that the price of everything that uses steel just went up and they're going to have to pay more for a whole lot of things. 

People save a whole lot of money on cheap imported goods, and that money that they saved flows into other businesses here in the United States.   Suppose a person who is living from paycheck to paycheck has to pay more for clothes, and shoes, and a TV set.  And then they need to fix their roof.   Do they postpone fixing their roof?   And with the price of shoes going up, do they buy fewer shoes?  And what effect does that have on jobs at shoe stores?  

Bottom line: I don't think we can control the flow of cheaper goods, and I don't think we should try to.    We need to either find a way to compete, or find some other business.   I am for free markets and free trade.

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