(06-04-2019, 05:19 PM)MalabarJag Wrote: (06-04-2019, 02:28 PM)jagibelieve Wrote: Yes and no. On one hand I like the fact that President Trump is "playing hardball" with China regarding trade between the two countries. However in the short term it has at least partially impacted the stock market recently. It also is causing future higher prices (possibly) to consumers and tough times for some of our farmers. Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing more than a bit of "short term pain" and a reasonable trade agreement can be made between the two countries.
Regarding the tariff threat to Mexico, that again is kind of a "yes and no" thing for me. On the one hand it is forcing Mexico to come to the table regarding the illegal immigration crisis. On the other hand it's not really what trade policy should be used for. The other thing to keep in mind is that tariffs on goods coming from Mexico will impact a lot of industries and ultimately the consumer. With that being said it was pretty much all that he could do since the Congress refuses to address the immigration crisis and instead wastes our taxpayer's money on endless and useless "investigations", hearings, etc.. The other thing to keep in mind is if the tariffs increase up to the 25% cap that is being talked about, then perhaps companies will bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S..
All of this.
Let me add that both China and Mexico have a lot more to lose. I fully expect these to yield positive results.
I agree with that, this tariff thing may hurt us in the short term but we are better off in the end.
I am curious as to other people's thoughts on this tariff/trade war thing, specifically with China. Nowadays, it seems like just about everything is made in China. I recently ordered a new camera, I received it, it's an amazing camera (Sony A7iii if anyone is interested). The entire time I was assuming that this is Japanese made, sure enough to my dismay "Made in China". It's a high end Sony camera, really? Also, all of my lenses, we are talking $1,000+ a pop, all made in China. It seems that the Chinese are now capable of making higher end products and when compared to a similar item made in Germany or Japan (where lots of good optics are made), the price difference just doesn't justify something that is only slightly better.
As for the whole idea, if we are losing a few hundred billion $ every year with China, eventually they will have a bigger economy than us, thus more money than us. Also considering, it's not like we are making up that difference with other countries as we seem to have a trade deficit with just about every other major country. If this continues at it's current pace I believe the only thing that could stop the deficit from growing is that eventually China will get to the point where they are almost as big as us, meaning making things in China will no longer be economically viable as quality of life and wages grow in China, as with what happened with Japan. Still though, with 1 billion+ people in China, there should always be cheap labor available. I have to say, it's depressing thinking about this type of thing, combine that with the fact that schools in China are very good, I suppose the only deterrent we have is keeping the largest military in the world at all times and at all costs.
