Your article missed the point of helping US farmers since China retaliated against them for Trump's tariffs:
Well, that just shows Trump's trade wars were kind of stupid, since they hurt America more than they hurt China.
How did Trump's tariffs hurt the US??
U.S. farm bankruptcies hit an eight-year high: court data
Very true. Its hard to make a decent living on the family farm, especially the smaller farms. They get hit with bad weather, low prices, and other costs. I'm not surprised that we're losing 500 family farm a year. However, their farm isn't scrapped, its sold and bought by a more successful farmer.
Bottom line: Trump's tariffs have zero to do with the continual loss of small family farms.
Most importantly, thank you for staying civil and on topic in the face of repeated personal insults.
From what I’m seeing you are trying to have it both ways. First, you want government intervention through trying to discourage Americans from buying imports from specific countries (tariffs) and then you want a laissez-faire approach when huge industrial corporate owned farms take over smaller family owned farms. The irony here, from my perspective, is that if President Trump never started a trade war with China, the farmers (small and big alike) wouldn’t have needed the subsidies. This has also had the affect of artificially creating a business environment for farms that gives larger farms an advantage over smaller farms simply because their profit margins are so much bigger than smaller family run farms. So, it appears that while not creating this trend (not just in farming) of larger businesses taking over smaller ones, this policy has certainly expedited the move to the edge of financial insolvency for smaller businesses that rely on China as a major share of their market.
Totally agree with your post. However the "China Problem" still remains.
I support Trump's efforts to protect US workers from unfair/illegal practices.
If you don't support those, what do you suggest?
As I get older, I really think democratic-style governments power to create change is somewhat limited. So while I would love universal health care, pretty sure handing that over to the Federal govt. is a recipe for disaster.
Agreed, China is/has behaved in ways that are totally unacceptable. And we can’t just pretend they do not exist or think that the US has the power by ourselves to affect the changes in their policies we wish to see. I think the answer is slow, plodding, boring diplomacy based on relying on a system of alliances. From what I can see, that is the only way we would have the leverage to move the needle at all. Unfortunately, President Trump has moved away from that and tried to strong arm the Xi. But because of our system of government all Xi had to do was wait him (Trump) out, knowing that he would be the leader of China long after Trump was out of office.
My point is, playing a game you are destined to loose is pointless and unproductive. In fact, based on the trade deal China just agreed on with the EU, we are in a far weaker position in regards to China than we were before this policy was enacted. While do something feels good, sometimes it’s best to just not make things worse.
At this point, our best path forward might be Biden trying to reestablish the partnerships created and fosters by the last 5 administrations. The same ones Trump has burnt down to fire up folks who truly desire American Greatness....something almost everyone can agree is more desirable than the alternative.
