Bryan Sant wrote: > Yes, but don't we have a weak dollar in the first place because of our > trade imbalance? Too much coming in (hey it's free!), not much going > out. Because companies are making product outside of America (because > it is cheap) and then selling it here (because it is free). They > share none of the burden of supporting America, yet they get all of > the benefits of selling within it. It would be like you and I paying > for the mall with our tax dollars and then let all of the vendors can > come use the store fronts for free -- not help support the burden of > paying for the construction and maintenance of the mall.
Sure, but a weak dollar is actually good for exports (in theory) because it makes our goods cheaper on the global market. Until recently the Canadian dollar was always lower than the US dollar. Yet Canada's economy has been strong for the last 10 years or so and is remaining strong, despite the weakening US economy. The reasons for this are fairly complex. A very strong US dollar actually puts us at a huge disadvantage when trying to sell our goods, despite the fact that it makes for a stronger domestic economy. It seems to me that part of our problem is we don't innovate on the scale that we used to. For example, if we think about the transistor, piano, car, electricity etc. All of these things are largely American innovations. Yet right now we think of Asia for almost all of these things. Yamaha pianos, cheap Chinese electronics, Korean cars. We need to get our butts in gear and offer products that are innovative and something people in the world want or need. Easy to say, hard to really do, though. Of course if we introduce tariffs on goods, then other countries are not going to be near as quick to buy our goods. This is the problem. > >> Protectionism destroys competition and stifles innovation, leading to >> higher costs and ultimately inflation, all of which affect us here >> domestically, not globally. > > I can see where you're going with this. Without a broad base of > competition, I can see unions applying the death grip to American > companies and making us completely uncompetitive. Businesses fail, > and America's economy takes the dirt nap. Well I wasn't thinking about the unions--they are slowly losing relevance anyway. But yeah. This is a distinct possibility (GM is a great example) > Yes, if a software product were sold for a profit here in America, I > would expect a modest tariff against it. Wait a minute! Linux is not > sold for a profit! Ok, no tariff. Tariffs aren't arbitrary. They > are based on the sale value of the product. Does Linux have no value? :) > > -Bryan > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > -- Michael Torrie Assistant CSR, System Administrator Chemistry and Biochemistry Department Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 +1.801.422.5771 /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
