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Another US Tech Trade Deficit
eldavojohn writes "The United States is suffering again from a massive trade deficit — $38.3 billion in 2006. And it's been going on since 2002. From the press release: 'In 2006, Asia supplied 60 percent of all US imports of advanced technology products. Europe supplied more than 20 percent, and North America more than 15 percent.'"
There is no such thing.
For every thing we buy from far away, we give back little pieces of paper. In other words, we "trade".
The essence of trade is that both sides would rather have what the other guy has.
So we fork over $49.95 for a CD player.
Some place in Taiwan has decided they'd rather have $49.95 than have a CD player. We decided the exact opposite.
After the "trade", both Ching-Chong Charlie and us, we are both happier.
That is the essence of trade.
So where is the "deficit"? We have fewer pieces of green paper, but that's okay, we got something better in exchange.
Poor C-C Charlie is stuck with little pieces of paper, only good for buying things priced in dollars. Which would be another "trade", beneficial to both parties.
On this issue, you'd be better of not trying to fix it at the ballot box- and fix it at the cash register instead by refusing to buy foreign-made goods. If enough US consumers did that, the trade imbalance would be fixed.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Hah, so american companies have enough to produce stuff locally and virtually be no further off because we'll spiral into an endless cycle of local inflation,
Well, there's a solution to that too- kill off the FED and stop producing fiat currency. The inflation will come down as the money supply tightens up (supply and demand, after all).
but we'll be able to afford it (thus staying the same in your perfect model.)
Yeah, unless of course we get smart and go back to the gold standard and stop allowing the government to print money.
Should we just forbid people from traveling too?
This is the information age, who needs to travel? Everything you can ever learn is right at your fingertips. Any experience you could ever want is available in the United States already, within 3000 miles of home, so who the hell needs to travel? Travel is just a waste of resources.
How about shut off the internet?
Rather, cut it off at the border- we created it, it's ours, why should we let somebody in China access it? Let them build their own.
There isn't, never was, and never will be a benefit to buying only american.
Except of course, NATIONAL SECURITY- but I guess you don't give a shit about that, being a traitor and all. Trade and other forms of foreign entanglement ties your economy to other economies, which allows dictators that the American people didn't elect to draw us into wars we don't want anything to do with. Like Iraq, for instance- there's no need for us to be in the Middle East at all- we have the ability to be entirely self-sufficient here, but because we choose to use cheap oil for our energy, we have to fight. If we had built our infrastructure based entirely on native materials, we wouldn't need to be messing around in the Middle East right now.
You don't have to agree with me, the market will back me up on this one.
The "market" is not loyal to America, and never has been, so is an insufficient predictor of what we need for national security at this point in history. In fact, the sheer chaos and greed of the so-called "free" market is a SEVERE danger to our health and well being as Americans.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Thanks for showing your open hate at the end there, MH42. Nice to know that marxists are still empty violent rebel types.
I'm an American before I'm anything else- and when violence is the only solution left open, violence becomes the solution. You've taken away our jobs, you've taken away our way of life, you're in the process of taking away our houses with those stupid variable rate mortgages. What else is left?
Your economic theory is interesting but baseless.
It's not an economic theory, it's a national security theory.
If you get out a map you can draw arbitrary lines on it and make any silly economic point that you please. Suppose you draw a line around downtown San Francisco, and you notice that goods and services come in while only trash goes out. You haven't made an economic point about downtown San Francisco; you've just found where some rich people live.
Rich people should get what they deserve- death for stealing from everybody else.
National borders are of similar, diminishing relevance. I know that you believe that an American is somehow "worth" more than someone in China, but it's not really true; all men are created equal, and most of them manage to stay that way. Goods and services move into the US rather than out because the people in the US have more money.
I never said that an American is "worth" more than someone in China. I said that people in America don't owe the people in China a living. Let them build their own economy- and keep ours for ourselves.
Sure, it won't always be that way; taking money away from the rich has always been the favorite pastime of the poor. But your predicions of collapse and calamity are far from likely. The US economy still produces a huge amount of product, despite what John Edwards would have you believe. Enough to pay off those debts easily enough should China come looking for their money.
The US Economy produces nothing but paper. And even most of that is actually produced elsewhere- it's only the information on the paper that is the value added. When people elsewhere figure out that America's money is worth less than the paper it's printed on, they will go elsewhere. Money has no intrinsic value, only mythical value.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
you don't have a 'right to a job' you have to right to apply for a job.
In that case, why should I bother with a job when it's easier just to shoot you and take what I want?
if nobody wants to pay your for your services, learn some new services. nobody 'took our jobs away' they simply outperformed us for a lower price.
No, they were allowed to have access to our customers by a government who refused to protect the borders.
I'm not talking about quality necessarily, that's another issue, and it varies as well.
Quality means nothing in the market- price is the only data the consumer has available to them, so that's what they make their decision on. Want quality? You need a protected market for quality.
People go to work and get paid because someone feels the need for their services, and that it's worth forking out the cash for said service instead of, for example, doing it themselves.
The more you do for yourself- the more that is done in your local community- the safer and less dependent you are on foreigners who couldn't give a shit about whether or not you have a service to offer.
If someone else does it for a lower price, then quit your bitching and do one of two things: find another job doing the same thing somewhere else, or, learn to do something else and do that.
And if you want a local community or a family, then you should be loyal to your local community and family. If not, you're just another traitor.
Like I said, industries, especially in particular geographical areas, but eventually as a whole, go completely out of business eventually when we have machines or other products to replace them. So, in accepting the fact that we don't live in a stagnant society, and that nobody is going to just walk up and start paying you for producing nothing (services included), you should really quit bitching about 'poor people who don't have jobs,' and start thinking of 'how can we find useful services for these folks to perform.'
That's exactly what I'm doing. The way to find useful services for people in our society to perform is by being LOYAL to our society and buying from people in our society, instead of being a selfish traitor and going elsewhere.
Notice that's not the same thing as forcing someone (or the government) to pay them to do what they feel like doing, it's repurposing some good resources -- the people who need the jobs. If all of the sudden computers could write all of their own code, I'd be fucked too, but I'm well aware of that, and I'm ready to accept the risk, so I seek employment as a programmer. You're not going to ever find something that's just right and sit on it for enternity, it'll just keep moving, like the rest of the planet.
And yet our fathers and grandfathers were able to- of course, they could spell too....unlike you.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.