If Americans actually got out of the country, leaving the happy confines of Walmart for a few days, they would start to get away from this ignorance. But how can they get out to see the world when only 30% of Americans have a passport?

I don’t care who puts forth protectionist ideas, they are all bad.

Then I guess you also disagree with the four individuals on Mount Rushmore: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

All four were economic nationalists. All would today be decried as protectionists. For all believed that the nation’s independence and prosperity hung upon its ability to stand alone in the world, and that foreign goods should never enjoy as privileged access to America’s markets as American goods made in the U.S.A.

All four put America first. And it was they who created out of 13 rural colonies the greatest manufacturing power in history. Is not their record superior to what Bush-Clinton-Bush left us: a hollowed-out industrial nation dependent on foreigners for the needs of our national life and for the loans to pay for them?

Those who prattle about the perils of protectionism need to be asked: What has free trade produced, but a bankrupt America that must go hat-in-hand to Beijing to borrow the money to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure? Are we also to use Chinese iron, steel and cement because they, with their Third World wages, will work for less than our fellow Americans?

I agree that greed is to blame, and there is something to be said about not buying American and supporting our own Country and fellow citizens. I am not saying the Government should tell us who we can and cannot buy from, in fact too much ineffective regulation is also to blame for the decline of American manufacturing. Selling to American Citizens is a priviledge for other countries and they should be paying for that priviledge.

Think of the cheap, harmful toys that come from China made with lead paint or small pieces that easily break, or of clothing labels of far left activists/liberals that are not Made in the U.S.A., even though they claim to be “for the little guy (middle class worker).” It is time we got American Manufacturing going again, that is the boost the middle class needs. That is done through tax cuts for American Businesses that employ the middle class, not welfare checks to those that do not pay taxes or earn wages. If we are going to rebuild American roads, bridges, schools, etc, it should be done with American cement, delivered by American vehicles, and buildt by American Citizens.

JS, have you been to the airports in Singapore, Hong Kong or Tokyo? I have not seen an airport like those in the States. Why is that? Maybe, cause we are often lazy, love burgers, love malls, love Jerry Spring, love to think we are better than everyone else, then when the shit hits the fan we blame everyone else. Many of my clients and friends don’t live in the U.S. They are good, smart people who work harder than many Americans. I am not about to sign on to some crazy program of America first, when much of what America does these days ain’t that grand.

Apparently, you have not given American vehicles a chance in a long time. I drive a Jeep, and love it. The few problems I have had are no more so than those of foreign cars, per Consumer Reports. I guess American vehicles are just held to higher standards, as they should be. On your next point, I said “Lead Paint,” not “toys,” and that is a problem when my child, as most if not all children, like to put toys in their mouth.

The peanut problem? Again, too much rather than effective, regulation.

As for starting American manufacturing, again the regulation problem comes into play. Think OSHA. When someone hurts themself in a plant because they were not following guidelines, even though they know the guidelines because they went through training, etc. (good regulation), the owner/company is still found to be at fault for not having “safety nets” in place to prevent the behavior (too much regulation).

As for Pat Buchanan “fear mongering,” China exports five times the dollar volume in goods to us as it imports from us, Beijing’s trade surplus with the United States set a world record: $266 billion.

In items the Commerce Department defines as advanced technology products (ATP), our trade deficit with China in 2008 reached $72 billion. Our total trade deficit with China in ATP exceeds $300 billion.

Since 1982, the United States has run $5.7 trillion in trade deficits in manufactured goods, and $2.1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and automobiles.

These statistics, these realities — factories closing in the United States, manufacturing jobs being outsourced in the millions to China and Asia, enormous, endless trade deficits in goods — testify to a painful truth: America is a receding and declining world power.

You call it “fear mongering,” I call it a problem.

JS, as far as your Jeep, Chrysler just asked for $5 billion more today over what they begged for in December. This is not a free-standing company anymore. It is a joke that I don’t want to pay for.

Has everyone forgotten that the real trigger for the Great Depression was the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 and not the 1929 stock market crash which was driven more by an earlier credit bubble deflating.

Has everyone forgotten that FDR’s architect of the New Deal, Henry Morgenthau testified before Congress in 1939 that the new deal was a failure – that they had spent and spent and spent and unemployment in 1939 was just as high as it had been 8 years earlier?

Has everyone forgotten that it wasn’t WW2 that ended the depression. Building things like tanks and planes and other tools of war may create jobs for a while but it doesn’t create wealth. What created prosperity was that after the war, the U.S. was the only country with modern factories operating and producing the goods that the world wanted.

Has anyone noticed that they aren’t locking in today’s low interest rates long-term in their funding? Seven year treasury notes? Really?

This is all show business. Politicians trying to look like they’re doing something. Too bad the something they’re choosing to do will drain real capital from the economy for decades to come.

JS, make an argument. Your response did not back a point of view. What did you not like? The car you like needs my money to keep its doors open. I don’t want my government making cars. My description of American culture you don’t like? Of course, we all know the statistics back that description. Right now we are seeing a culture lazy and scared. Prove me wrong.

JS-

By your logic, North Korea, almost entirely an “internal economy” should be an economic powerhouse, right? And places that fully embrace free-trade (Hong Kong and Singapore come to mind) should be an economic wasteland?? Hmmmmmm, JS, how come the exact OPPOSITE is true? Care to explain that?

I wish more people framed free trade from an “individual liberty” perspective. If I wish to transact with the Honda Motor Corp., and we find an agreeable price, what right does a third-party have to intervene and tell us we are not allowed to exchange at this mutually beneficial price? This, absolutely, is a massive affront to my individual liberty and should not be tolerated. I find it ironic (and sad) that the union-type construction workers whom I park with (they’re building a new hotel next to my garage) all have stickers on their hard hats and pick-up trucks proclaiming their love for America and American ideals like “freedom” and “liberty.” Yet their entire existence is predicated upon denying those very ideals to other Americans.

Bill Clinton said “we need to give a hand up, not a handout” and right he was. If we are giving multi $$$ to the auto industry, then the actions they propose must be scrutinized very, very carefully. GM is a joke: they have proposed that they scrap Saab, Saturn, and the Hummer. These were all dogs anyway. There is little insight in GM, no vision, and no profit for 9 years.Lee Iacocca did not get an interview with GM because he was not 6′ tall! Now there’s great management.There are many new MBA’s avilable that would inject fresh ideas into GM. The old conservative thinking has produced losses, poor quality automobiles, and pigs like the Hummer, Dasani etc. GM needs to wake up to the PRESENT reality and rebuild from the ground up. America first is fine, but not America exclusively. It’s a GLOBAL economy, and Globally in trouble.

Well all, we will just have to wait and see how many of our trading partners sue us through the WTO. Protectionism has never been proven to work, any where in the world. And Smoot Hawley made the 30′s incredibly worse. The “New Deal” was a failure, and the present government plans to rescue the economy will prove, eventually, to ba another failure. Tell me how much improvement has occurred so far. This wntire plan is nothing more than a politacl power grab to create an obligated electorate that will continue to vote for the party that promises more socialism, and better welfare. Please tell me how making it easier to get a college loan is going to turn our economy around. And while you’re at it, tell me how giving a “tax Refund” to people that did not pay taxes is going to help. Obama says there are no “earmarks’, but it seems to me that this program is almost entirely politics as usual.

JS Fowler, weak. Very weak.

Demanding royalties for that weak words? Hey, you can add it to your bailout package…

GM and other US manufacturers can’t compete, because outrageous union demands are crippling them.

Do you like to pay extra for a car? Does it make you feel good to know that you
could have supported another business with the money saved from your purchase?

Toyota and others have better manufacturing processes, strategic plans etc. thus they are just plain better. If Americans love their own cars so much why is GM bankrupt? They should be full of cash.

Regarding free trade. In the long run imports and exports must equal each other. It is exports that pay for imports, and vice versa. The greater exports we have, the greater imports we must have, if we ever expect to get paid. The smaller imports we have, the smaller exports we can have. Without imports we can have no exports, for foreigners will have no funds with which to buy our goods. When we decide to cut down our imports, we are in effect deciding also to cut down our exports. When we decide to increase our exports, we are in effect deciding also to increase our imports.

America is developed. You can’t expect it to be growing at 5% plus p.a.

China and others will also develop like the US did in the 1900′s. When America demands buying American, China will demand buying Chinese…America needs China.

Open your eyes fool.

Check the ego’s at the door

Good point Rob, that’s the key to successful trading too!

Swoosh!! Hey, what’s that sound? Why, it’s the sound of the United States economy going down the toilet!

Smoot-Hawley lives! He’s been dressed up in a new suit and some shiny new shoes, but he’s the same ol’ protectionist dunce!