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Thanks to @cvpayne for having me on to talk tariffs vs economy. Since it was short, or if you missed it, here are some key points. 1st, China is a problem, primarily because of IP and espionage. I give POTUS credit for having the fortitude to fight for that...
Where I disagree is tactics (I’d use counter non-enforcement of IP as a tactic), but can at least agree on the underlying need. Where I think people miss the argument is on trade/jobs. The reality is that US consumers want their dollar to stretch far...
They don’t want to pay $65 for a t-shirt or toy produced in the US that they could pay $15 for sourced elsewhere (China or otherwise). Bringing that job back to the US is a false choice and illogical thinking. You don’t want to double pay if it means paying triple for goods...
That actually doesn’t benefit the worker because the worker is also the consumer (70% of economy is consumer/consumption). Not to mention that for many businesses that do manufacturing abroad, they handle design, marketing, retail, shipping and more in the US...
Having that lower cost of production allows for many other US jobs. So, the trade arguments are not as binary and simple as they are often portrayed. Free market trade is to our benefit, but we do have to make sure the participants come into the market in good faith.
One more point is to always remember that big business is used as the foil, but #smallbiz are the ones that struggle. We have fewer than 15,000 big businesses, but 30.2 million small ones. They are the ones without the resources and backstops to navigate tough times.
