Do you see any dangers with a 300 billion dollar a year trade deficit
No. All the trade deficit means is that we import more than we export. It is a natural consequence of free trade.
What do you want to do about it? Control the markets? Reorganize American industry? Outlaw mutually profitable trade? Institute price control?
That is all you can do. It sure as hell sounds like you want to turn the United States into Communist China.
and a stagnant middle class?
Want to raise incomes on the Middle Class? Reject tariffs with every ounce of lifeblood that you have.
Support the free market which you are currently spitting on.
What you just did there was restate the old Free Trade Argument that has been the Conventional Wisdom and the basis of our Trade Policy for 40 years.
Without any acknowledgement or answer for the fact that that Argument and that Policy has NOT delivered the positive results that were promised.
You argue that if I want o raise incomes for the MIddle Class that I should reject tariffs.
But we have been rejecting tariffs. And MIddle Class incomes have NOT risen, they have stagnated.
WIth real pain for tens of millions of Americans.
Life Expectancy for White Americans Declines
"Life expectancy fell for the U.S. white population in 2014 and remained flat for all population groups combined, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showing how increases in death rates from suicides, drug overdoses and related causes are threatening an important measure of health and prosperity.
The number of years a white American born in 2014 could be expected to live fell to 78.8 years from 78.9 years the year before, according to the CDC. The change was driven largely by women."
"Such reversals, even small ones, are unusual for wealthy nations, where people tend to live longer with each successive generation, as health care and public safety improve and the standard of living rises.
In the U.S., life expectancy overall has been stagnant at 78.8 years since 2012, remaining below that of several European countries, Canada, Australia and Japan. The stagnation follows decades of steady gains in the U.S., from 69.7 years overall in 1960 to 76.8 years in 2000 and 78.7 years in 2010.
“It’s a wake-up call,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which has analyzed U.S. county mortality data."
"There have been signs for years that health and socioeconomic problems might be chipping away at improvements in longevity for parts of the U.S. population. In 2008, the IHME reported that life expectancy had stagnated or declined for about 4% of men and 19% of women in the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. The report cited diseases related to smoking, high blood pressure and obesity as contributors and noted wide disparities in life expectancy between poor and wealthy U.S. counties.
Now, deaths from suicide, drug overdoses and similar causes appear to be playing a bigger role.
Research published in November showed that white middle-aged Americans—both men and women—have been dying at a rising rate since the beginning of this century, due in large part to suicide, alcohol abuse and chronic liver diseases. "
Generations of economic hardship hurts people.
People that in better times could have supported a family instead get left by their wives or never even attract a mate.
People that in better times could have held it together, fail to do so when faced with constant hardship.
While you are patting your self on the back for being so clever and crushing some guy on the people are literally dying.
Free Trade Ideology is a means to an end. The End is to serve the interests of the American People,
It has failed to do that, and it is past time to drop a failed policy.
