> We also can not overlook the fact that the market is already voting against US production with their wallets. The market is free to pay a premium for US made products, but clearly prefers lower cost goods.
So the rest of the country pays more food good and services in aggregate. Big deal. We do it with whatever tools are necessary, even tariffs.
EDIT:
> It would be much better to use the funds to re-educate this part of the population to work higher value jobs.
This opinion got Trump elected, and why drug use and death in rural America is epidemic. There are no higher value jobs coming to replace those lost to globalization. I know people with Masters degrees working at Starbucks and a Bail Bond shop.
Get off your high horse about market inefficiencies and realize "Let them eat cake" is what's taking us down the wrong path. Direct efforts must be made to help the most vulnerable members of our society, or they will burn the place down.
At the end of the day, it is about subsidizing an inefficient labor market. For the tariff to bring low value jobs back, it will have to be significant. Offshoring will still be more resource efficient, so you are better off paying back the tariff fees as welfare than bringing the jobs back. It would be much better to use the funds to re-educate this part of the population to work higher value jobs.
It is also disregarding the externalities of enacting a tariff. So we put something in place to bring electronic manufacturing back from China. They still control most of the raw materials, and can put their own tariff in place on export of those materials, further reducing our competitiveness. International politics are not so simple.
So the rest of the country pays more food good and services in aggregate. Big deal. We do it with whatever tools are necessary, even tariffs.
EDIT:
> It would be much better to use the funds to re-educate this part of the population to work higher value jobs.
This opinion got Trump elected, and why drug use and death in rural America is epidemic. There are no higher value jobs coming to replace those lost to globalization. I know people with Masters degrees working at Starbucks and a Bail Bond shop.
Get off your high horse about market inefficiencies and realize "Let them eat cake" is what's taking us down the wrong path. Direct efforts must be made to help the most vulnerable members of our society, or they will burn the place down.