What is possibly worse for the economy: "Bailouts" or "Buy American"?
- Thread starter gevorg
- Start date
Im not taking the bait.
Buying American is always a good idea. :thumbsup:
Edit: Unless it is American "Kobe" beef. That is just wrong.
Buying American is always a good idea. :thumbsup:
Edit: Unless it is American "Kobe" beef. That is just wrong.
CrackRabbit
Lifer
- Mar 30, 2001
- 16,642
- 62
- 91
Buying something that is American made is good. Enacting economic protectionism measures are bad, and always seem to backfire.
Well seeing how this thread is about buying American products, I dont think we have anything to worry about.
Yes, we shouldn't encourage buying American because NAFTA and other anti-BuyAmerican trade agreements have done such a great job with our economy!
Oh, well trade protectionism is theoretically bad yes. But in light of how badly our economy is doing right now, a little protectionism might not be such a bad thing, if it saves what is left of our industry so it can weather the storm in the short term.
Then how are people going to afford the products they need? People would buy American now if our products were equivalently priced.
It's really a difficult problem to deal with. Sure, in theory people could afford more expensive goods as they'd be hired by better paying American industry. Perhaps. But what needs to happen first? Industry would take many years to come back and there is a large group of our population that depends on cheap imported goods. Being exported, this was a bit easier to deal with. Typically, an industry would pop up elsewhere to produce cheap goods which drove an American company to do the same or go out of business. But the goods got cheaper before the Americans lost their higher paying job. To reverse this, the Americans need to get the job first, before the goods get more expensive.
frostedflakes
Diamond Member
- Mar 1, 2005
- 7,925
- 1
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I advocated it earlier, but I have to admit, I was wrong about the "buy American" clause. The EU and Canada were not at all pleased with the "buy American" provision in the original stimulus bill (and I didn't realize this, but apparently the original legislation was also in violation of international trade laws; many countries threatened to take it to the WTO and challenge it if the bill passed). Fortunately the final version of the bill toned it down and made the provision compliant with international law. The bill also gives a lot of discretion to the executive branch, and Obama has made it clear that he doesn't want to do anything that will alienate our trade partners. Hopefully they can strike a good balance between free trade and supporting domestic suppliers.
rudder
Lifer
- Nov 9, 2000
- 19,441
- 86
- 91
Generally when I buy a tool or something I look for the made in U.S.A. label. These days there are some things that are simply not made in the U.S. anymore... like TV's. Cars... well foreign cars are made here, American brands are built in Mexico, parts come from all over.
For the sake of the poll I will say buy American because I don't think it will lead to protectionism and the bailout is a bad idea.
BoberFett
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 37,562
- 9
- 81
Buy less of our goods? The US has a trillion dollar trade deficit. Other countries don't buy things from us anyway, what are they going to do? If anybody wants to start a trade war with us, they will lose. With that kind of trade imbalance, the loss of exports to the US will hurt them far more than it does us.
frostedflakes
Diamond Member
- Mar 1, 2005
- 7,925
- 1
- 81
The US actually does export a lot, it's just that we import a lot as well. Wikipedia says 1.3T for exports and 2.1T for imports in 2008.
Interesting.
I would say "Buy American is just as bad as the bailouts. Buying anything but the best product is un-American because you are not providing encouragement to the not-best-product companies to do better.
By encouragement I mean not giving them money.
- Nov 3, 2004
- 5,070
- 1
- 0
Actually, in 2008 US exports were about $1.5 trillion worth of goods. Keeping that stable and growing is much more important than restricting several hundred billions dollars of the bailout on US only goods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...f_countries_by_exports
The best way to benefit from buying American is if the end-user (consumer) will decide to do so on their own, not by some government initiative.
BoberFett
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 37,562
- 9
- 81
Yes. That's why I called it the trade deficit.
If anybody initiates a trade war, we can do a lot more damage to them than they can to us. If we truly wanted to be protectionists we could wipe out entire countries economies in a matter of months. We'd just have a few less trinkets and people would do without.
frostedflakes
Diamond Member
- Mar 1, 2005
- 7,925
- 1
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We import a lot more than trinkets. Fuels, industrial machinery, etc. make up a large chunk of our imports.
Trade wars would hurt everybody, including the US, which is why I'd rather we try to avoid them.
Trade wars would hurt everybody, including the US, which is why I'd rather we try to avoid them.
Bailouts.
While it's true that buying American eliminates potentially better foreign products, these products will still be available, for a price, and if the disparity is truly that large, then a factory branch right here in the US might be the way to go.
Besides, right now the choice is almost always between quality American products and ridiculously cheap and shoddy Chinese goods. I'll take a small number of quality products over a whole bunch of crap any day, even if that means that I have fewer material goods in the end.
While it's true that buying American eliminates potentially better foreign products, these products will still be available, for a price, and if the disparity is truly that large, then a factory branch right here in the US might be the way to go.
Besides, right now the choice is almost always between quality American products and ridiculously cheap and shoddy Chinese goods. I'll take a small number of quality products over a whole bunch of crap any day, even if that means that I have fewer material goods in the end.
Schadenfroh
Elite Member
- Mar 8, 2003
- 38,416
- 4
- 0
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