It depends some on your politics....... and that is a tough thing to bring up in a forum.
As the others calmly say, I think the goal is to straighten out some inequities in world trade.
The USA got pretty wealthy, and decided as a group we should care about the environment, and workers health and safely, and all such things many years ago, instead of just profits. Which is good.....
But we also are human as individuals, and we want to spend as little as possible.
So To feel good, we passed all sorts of laws to protect workers, air quality, water quality, wages.
And then we drove to the store and bought the cheapest product we could find on the shelf, which was imported from Taiwan, Mexico, India, Korea, and now China. All made by countries that didn?t or don?t protect the air, water, their worker safety, or pay a living wage.
And so we Americans sit here feeling good and smug about all the good we do, and end up simply exporting all the bad to other parts of the world. Which is still hurting individual people.
Those other countries are stealing wealth away from us along the way. Sure their water and air is poorer and they have a lot of poverty and maimed workers. But their economies are growing because of it. The scales are tipping away from our country, and towards those countries.
I truly beive this is a last ditch big picture effort to try to reverse some of that. If it isn?t, we really don?t have any other options on the table to do so, and so things will continue to devolve if this effort doesn?t work?
I stand on the sidelines and am somewhat bemused by which political leanings support which efforts here. The mean ugly conservatives appear to support workers and the environment in this, they must not realize this? The liberals appear to be supporting the status quo of slave labor around the globe, rotten working conditions, and fouled environment by wanting things to remain imbalanced as they are.
We are living the book ?1984? right now.
Doublespeak.
I am just amazed at what is being said out there but people on both sides that have no clue what they are actually supporting.
I enjoy this thread and calm discussion and I realize many people have many different opinions, it would be nice if postive things could be said and not the arrows and rocks thrown around as so often happens.
As to the tariffs, the USA is much better able to handle the tariff situation than China is. China needs to import food to feed its people. The USA needs to import coffee makers and 4K TV sets to stock the big box stores.
Who do you think has the most to lose on this? Some parts of the USA economy will take a hit. China has some -real- issues to deal with.
I hope they figure it out and get themselves sitting at a table soon. It has to happen, might as well happen sooner than later. This saving face crap gets old, roll up the sleeves and get to work. Things have changed, work out a new plan.
Certainly there will be long repercussions. One of the long term goals it to have more manufacturing here, which means cost of everything has to go up, because e have to work under osha, epa, etc. that is some of the point, and that has to make stuff in the store cost more....
So even if this all is wildly successsful in the end, it means some big changes for us all, especially short term over a few years until things would get stabilized and the new way would be up and running - more stuff made here, a little less imported, a little higher waged jobs here, a little higher cost of living.
This is not an easy thing.
It would be a good thing, if it works. If we have the stomach to see it through.
I think.
We are used to ?easy.? Some things aren?t always easy.....
Paul