Yeah that describes me well. I agree with a lot of what BPV says so I must be a "parrot-monkey". I don't think you know me very well.
it's absolutely not true that trade deficits are bad. our workforce is too skilled and expensive to be making toasters and t shirts. let china do it. it's more efficient and will make americans richer in the long term.
And it isn't like we are shipping that money off and not getting anything in return. We are getting cheap goods and services. Trade deficits are mostly an illusion, if you ask me, something to talk about. But people like Trump seem to see it as some kind of one way street where we are actually losing money. I agree that something needs to be done with China and their complete shitting on IP and other things, not to mention their human rights violations and pollution issues, but the actual trade deficit is not a huge problem. But I am no economist, as usual, and this stuff all seems voodoo.
it's because there is this misconceived notion that america was better when we "made things." that somehow more $12 an hour jobs is what we need. he's not the only politician to spew this nonsense. bernie was all over that. as was obama.
For the third time in as many years, China has been caught installing microchips into computer equipment purchased by federal contractors, giving them an on-demand backdoor into the systems. The national security angle is very real and absolutely underestimated.
We need to maintain an industrial base to crank up if need be. Can't create one over night. That being said, its the high tech manufacturing we're interested in not T-Shirts and Jordans.
Absolutely. Finally the people that have for years been claiming that Chinese companies would never sabotage the supply chain because it'd be bad for business are starting to realize if these companies don't comply with the Chinese government they have no business. Near term I think we'll see silicon manufacturing move to other East Asian countries, but we absolutely need to bring more of that capacity back home. The consumer will pay for it one way or the other through either dollars or data.
Meh, I want the base. Plus, not every American is going to have a high tech/shilled job. Great in theory, but it's just not going to happen.
This is no more fair than it is valid - either as a characterization of Zehr or as an independent argument. Certainly, the affirmative agreement with another doesn’t automatically invalidate either their agreement or the original statement. You just don’t like that BPV directly confronts you with valid criticisms, and do not prefer that other people find that to be agreeable. Simply, your problem is that BPV is attacking you, and not that Zehr finds it agreeable. A better argument best solves all ills.
Another interesting aspect is most all of the rare earth metals needed for silicon comes from China. I believe there were some mines in California and other states out West, but they have since closed.
What industrial base needs to be fired up? Don't we already make all of our war vehicles here? I am sure all of our ships are made here. I don't think any war going forward is going to require us to make 50,000 tanks and 150,000 bombers and fighter planes. WWII type wars are not going to be fought any more. I imagine steel production is probably what you are talking about? Just raw materials?