Can Someone Definitively Say what Trump Stands For?

[protectionist]

Yeah, we do have the largest and richest market. We won't, if we start a trade war. Name one country that engaged in protectionism, that didn't have a decline.

So if we have a trade war with China, Japan, Mexico, that means our market somehow disappears ? Care to explain the logic behind that ?

"Name one country that engaged in protectionism, that didn't have a decline" ? Sure. >> The USA. During the entire 19th century, when we went from a fledgling frontier nation of wagon trains and log cabins, to the greatest industrial power the world has ever known.

 

[Andylusion]

Yeah, we do have the largest and richest market. We won't, if we start a trade war. Name one country that engaged in protectionism, that didn't have a decline.

So if we have a trade war with China, Japan, Mexico, that means our market somehow disappears ? Care to explain the logic behind that ?

"Name one country that engaged in protectionism, that didn't have a decline" ? Sure. >> The USA. During the entire 19th century, when we went from a fledgling frontier nation of wagon trains and log cabins, to the greatest industrial power the world has ever known.

No, we never had an exclusive protectionist policy until the early 1930s. Care to recall what happened then?

Moreover, if you actually look at the few tariff barriers we had, they all failed. Even Economists of the early 1900s, looking back, said they were absolute failures, and held our economy down.

Yes, our market will dry up very quickly and blow away. How? Easy. Called Capital flight. It's what happens in any country that adopts an exclusive protectionist stance.

The price of goods will drastically increase. At the same time, international buyers will vanish.

Take Pittsburgh steel industry after the Smoot-Hawley tariff. Imported iron ore was heavily taxed, resulting in a massive increase of iron ore. At the same time, countries around the world slapped every punitive tariffs on our exported steel, resulting in a drastic drop in demand.

Result? The Steel industry collapsed. Thousands were left unemployed, killing demand further.

The same happened with many other industries throughout the entire nation.

How does that apply today? Well take my last employer. We imported dozens of electronic components to make our products, which were then sold nation wide, and exported across the world.

A massive protectionist policy would cause the cost of nearly all the materials that go into that product to drastically increase in price. For example, the CPUs we used, were only $150, but came from out of the country. Depending on just how big a tariff you placed, that could easily double.

At the same time, other countries would certainly impose retaliatory tariffs, that would drive up the cost of our exports, which would kill off a safe estimate of 25% of our sales. And that estimate doesn't include the loss of domestic sales, as our customers would likely order fewer of our units at a higher cost... or worse... stop using our units entirely.

In short, protectionism would likely terminate the entire company. And I actualy know of two more companies that would be in the same situation. One made power supplies for public busses all over the world, and the other made outdoor light fixtures for low power LED lights in commercial venues. Both would be damaged, if not destroyed by protectionism.

There's a reason why Hong Kong citizens enjoyed a 1st world standard of living with total free trade with everyone, and China with closed protectionism, was a 3rd world country, with people living in mud huts.

I can't think of a single country that engaged in protectionism, and had a positive result, and no, the USA is not even close to a good example.

 

[P@triot]

Seriously…

Absolutely. The same exact things that Hitlery Clinton stands for (why do you think he was one of her biggest supporters?):

1.) Power
2.) Control
3.) Money
4.) Ego
5.) Oppression

That is the true platform of both of these idiots.