On 9/27/05, Gruss Gott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Matthew wrote: > > I'm surprised that you think we can't try to equalize pressure. It's been > > done for hundreds of years. > > > > I'm going to have to appeal to Cameron, master of concise economic > theory, to help here. I'm a free trader so I think tariffs are a > fool's trade, especially with today's technology. I could be wrong.
I'm not really sure I can live up to those expectations, and I promised myself I was done with this thread for the day, but I do have an opinion on Tariffs. I think that what we are discussing is a massively complex problem with no simple answers. In many many ways the it's to our advantage that the playing field is not level. We do get a significant economic benefit from cheap products made overseas. In the short term we lose some jobs, but in the long term, we all have more "stuff" for the same amount of money. Tariffs are also not entirely under our control. Even if we eliminate 100% of our trade restrictions, most other countries will still have them. Example - in California, Avocados are big business. Recently the US dropped restrictions on importing Avocados from Mexico and Chile. Now Avocados from those two countries can be imported anywhere in the US except Cali and Fla (states that grow them), and soon will also be able to import to those states. Yet a restriction remains that Cali Avocados are still not allowed into Mexico or Chile. Most products that cross US borders are this way. It's uneven in one direction or the other, and we only have a limited control over that, mainly through an international diplomatic process. But even assuming we could remove all tariffs in every direction and allow real global free trade, there will be problems. It *IS* cheaper to do just about everything that doesn't require direct human face to face interaction in another country. Jobs will go to other countries, alot of jobs, no - i mean ALOT of jobs. But that's how it's supposed to work. Without tariffs, we'd be dropping a bomb on the current economic system, however flawed it is and the correction to the inequalities will be painful - to us. But that's the moral conundrum of economics. The free market system does work, but not always to our advantage. That's why we've built up walls and barriers to regulate it, to make it to our advantage. So say we go the other direction and tariff everything to try to equalize prices across the global economy. Tons of problems with that - we'd essentially be trying to fix the price of everything we import and export. This would be very much like the central planning attempted in the socialist USSR. Some govt agency would have to try to figure out what the price of EVERYTHING we buy and sell should be, predict what the supply will be, the demand. Holy crap, talk about a clusterf*ck. Even if that were possible by some magic WOPR supercomputer, forcing local US price/cost equilibrium via heavy tariffs also is a very US centric point of view. Of course we need to do what is in the country's best interest, but we aren't always the biggest consumers, and it is increasingly becoming the case that we are less and less significant in the global economy as consumers. We benefit from cheap stuff made overseas, and heavy tariffs that REALLY equalize everything would make companies reconsider even doing business with the US. If a company can sell a brazillion televisions to China and India, why would they bother with the pain-in-the-ass US? In the end, the entire beast is really a huge problem that can't be solved with a sophomoric ideal like completely free trade or tariffing the rest of the world to death. The global economy isn't level, but it also doesn't belong to the USA. We have to play nice and work towards mutually benifitial systems, some of which require a restructuring of our job market - which is not pleasant nor popular. That's my slightly more than 2 cents. Arg - so now I am really getting back to work... -Cameron ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:175336 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
