Nearshoring is a strategic move for US

[BrntOrngStmpeDe]

watched Gen. Keane on Fox Sunday morning. His position that we need to ramp up Defense to beat China is wrong. We need to quit feeding the beast by allowing China to syphon off our economic power. We built China. We made them into the power they are now by virtue of moving so much of our manufacturing to China. Politicians watched, allowed and in many cases encouraged this to happen.

The answer to our immigration problem and our strategic defense problem are the same. Force companies to begin moving production out of China and into Central and South America. Cent/South America could never be cohesive enough to be a military or economic threat to US in the way that China has become. At the same time, pushing a little economic prosperity into each of these countries could help immigrants stay home.

 

[Monahorns]

How should the government force companies to move and how could they push that to Central America? Not sure I understand what this general is proposing.

 

[BrntOrngStmpeDe]

How should the government force companies to move and how could they push that to Central America? Not sure I understand what this general is proposing.

the General is not proposing this, I am. The general is proposing we just increase the defense budget by gobs to keep up with China.

Imposing bans, restrictions, tariffs etc would get the job done. we just have to tell the rest of the world to F-off when they complain to the WTO. China is clearly not playing by the rules and has not been for a long time. So we take our ball and move to the other playground.

Penalize imports from China, incentivize imports from Central/South Am. We've done it this way for decades. We just need to get past the idea that China can be saved from communism and that China will ever be anything to us but a fierce (cheating) competitor at best and an enemy at worst.

Without our constant infusion of capital China would have to cut back their spending on defense. This would mean we don't have to overspend on defense.

 

[Driver 8]

China is clearly not playing by the rules

Are you under the impression that the U.S. "plays by the rules"?

 

[Monahorns]

Are you under the impression that the U.S. "plays by the rules"?

The US sets rules that we then refuse to play by.

But China is a serious competitor so I don't feel bad shifting supply chains away from them.

 

[Mr. Deez]

Agree 100 percent. I'm a big advocate for the military and for a large defense budget, but mindlessly hiking that budget is foolish. The Pentagon has plenty of money. They often spend it foolishly and sometimes corruptly, but there is no lack of money. We need to economically disentangle ourselves from China. That would greatly weaken their ability to spend on defense and reduce the pressure on us to further boost ours, which is plenty high enough. Could I be open to a boost at some point? Yes, but not without meaningful oversight of how DoD spends what it currently gets.

 

[mchammer]

 

[Monahorns]

Tariffs are how the government makes basic goods unaffordable for poor people. Oren Cass is a "conservative" making the case for bigger government.

If you want to strengthen manufacturing reduce the cost of energy, cut taxes, simplify or eliminate regulations, raise the bar for law suits, etc. There is so much to do that helps manufacturers by reducing the power of government, but Republicans always want to increase the government for their pet theory.

 

[Run Pincher]

I had a free market Prof in grad school that didn't appreciate me because I asked about the difference in regulation. The free market economists never take that into consideration and their models are based on that.

How can a US manufacturer that deals with multiple unions compete with a government controlled company in another country that pays a worker $3 day? I've been in union worker US companies that pay $35-$40-/hr for doing nothing but push buttons on a machine. I know lot's a lot more than that in the auto market now after the strikes. And if you ask them to do anything more than push buttons they file a complaint with the union and it goes through a 2 week complaint process or to court costing thousands. On top of that, I could walk through the plant at any point in time and find 3 or 4 people sound asleep.

In contrast, I could walk though a US company in a different part of the country with no union and most of the employees were immigrants making $12-$15 hr working their tails off and grateful to have a job, kept their work areas clean and were always willing to help out other areas.

The first step would be to get rid of unions so US companies could compete in a free market. That would help US companies compete and take a step towards competing in the type of market the economists advocate. But the US is never going to be able to compete against a communist country and tariffs are one of the few ways to level the playing field even if it means higher prices.

What's the alternative? Do nothing and there won't be anymore manufacturing jobs in the us and unemployment is 40% and they aren't buying anything?

 

[Monahorns]

But the US is never going to be able to compete against a communist country

Why do you believe communism is better than the free market. Communism doesn't work. It always falls apart given a little bit of time.

 

[Run Pincher]

Why do you believe communism is better than the free market. Communism doesn't work. It always falls apart given a little bit of time.

WTF??????????

 

[Monahorns]

I quoted the part I was referring to. I think you have a subconscious belief that needs to be recognized.

 

[Run Pincher]

I quoted the part I was referring to. I think you have a subconscious belief that needs to be recognized.