Trump may screw it up with China but I haven’t heard anyone else’s plan to finally get the Chinese from cleaning our clocks. You can’t just give into them for the long haul. The playing field needs to change.
Hey, people in this country purchase foo foo coffee's for $4-$6 a cup. You comment about Amercian's not wanting to pay more goods made here, is not true. The key is its got to be innovative like foo foo coffee or Honda Lawn mowers and they will. If its quality they will buy.
If you want to level the playing field, be careful what you wish for. The complaint about China undercutting other countries prices because their govt. subsidises the companies, is a two edged sword. Worldwide, we are the largest exporter of food. In large part due to our lower prices. This is a direct result of subsidies farmers and ranchers receive. Also, many businesses that export their products receive tax breaks at the state level. This is also a form of subsidy.
I do agree with you. Good pro active strategies need to be considered and dialed in. Subsidies are important as is being business/ corporate friendly enough to cultivate innovation and manufacturing incentives for companies to remain here or move here.
I don't know whether coffee is such a great example, since it is manufactured (grown) almost entirely in other countries. But I think your point is that people will pay a lot of money for stuff if they feel like it. It's hard to imagine every single product being innovative. Imagine a Wal-Mart competitor called USA-Mart that sells the same range of goods, but everything is made in the US. Imagine that the prices at USA-Mart are on average twice what Wal-Mart charges for Chinese made goods. Which store do you think more people will shop at? Don't bother answering, we already did the experiment over the past several decades. Cheap stuff won, overwhelmingly. barfo
You are probably right, because Trump desperately needs to resolve it before the election / before it causes a recession. Too bad he never read 'The Art of the Deal'. The Chinese don't have to make a deal - the trade war is hurting them for sure, but Xi doesn't have an election coming up. The asymmetry there, along with the fact that Trump doesn't have even a freshman level grasp of economics or diplomacy, suggests that Trump will lose the war. The Chinese will, however, let him think he won the war. barfo
He'll eventually compromise with China, we'll come off much worse than China and he'll claim victory.
Like your prospective. The Japanese murder campaign in Manchuria was the deciding action in the mid 30's that put the entire European, Australian and US governments in alert. The Japanese felt that with their superior attitude and advanced war machine capabilities they could turn to Pacific domination. At this time the "Axis" believed the Americans did not have the stomach for war. Imagine if the Nazi's did invade, conquer England and succeeded in establishing their territory further into the Atlantic. What if Hitler never created a multiple front war and did not declare war on the US three days after Pearl Harbor. If the Axis delayed creation of war for two years each power would share technology and the V1,V2, submarine and jet production along with uranium development would be turning points in history. After we dropped Little Boy and Boxcar on the Japanese mainland, the Russians took full advantage of their weakness and claimed territory Japan acquired in 1904. I am always tuned into the BBC series Battlefield on Utube. My father was on the Missouri and my uncle was a tail gunner in a B-17.
In some consumable market's sure, there will always be low end mass markets, but its tough for companies to make any money unless they get the volume needed which isn't always easy. This segment, brand is not as important as its price driven. American's like brand products that are differentiated, Trader Joes, New Seasons, Organics, Mac, Toyotas, Car dealers service centers versus low end repair facilities, Jiffy Lube, Amazon, etc. Companies can make a higher profit margin in a mid to high end market, generally. Supply and demand can still dictate market pricing, look at real east in the Pacific Northwest and the cost of housing here as a % of income. Even the NBA and Major league sports is a form of high end niche marketing. Price out a Winter Hawk ticket versus an NHL ticket, its brand and innovation/marketing with a much higher cost of product that sells at a nice profit margin. If people were strictly interested in the lowest cost hey would move to Mississippi or Arkansas where the dollar goes a lot further compared to the NW. Look at liquor and beer anymore, its got to be brand/quality...a smaller segment drinks Hamms & Potters. But it sure is cheap and Ill even drink some of it. Now days people pay pooku bucks for elite brand waters too. I remember growing up in North Portland and later Sellwood and the cost of housing was decent and affordable because of older neighborhoods, now they sell for more than new track homes in the burbs. Brand and Marketing at its best.
We make a line of recipe boxes in the US. They literally cost us 600% more to manufacture than our Chinese recipe boxes. So of course we charge a lot more for them, and for every one we sell we move about 40 of the Chinese ones. We do engraving in the US and we wrote and manufactured our own cookbook software in the US. I'm totally fine with doing stuff domestically. But I have to go with what the market wants. My job is to keep my employees employed and a roof over my head. I don't have the luxury of dictating to my customers what they should buy.
Why do you hate: A: America B: Children C: Clean Air D: The President of the United States E: La Pine, Oregon F: America You Ex-Pat, Anti-American hooligan, who does Ex-Pat, Anti-American hooliganary things! [/green font]
Americans like creature comforts and a huge segment will pay for the fluff. As I pay $10 freaking dollars for a Killer Burger. Never again.
The reasons it’s more expensive to manufacture in America than China are we don’t use slave labor, we have massive taxes on business, we have a massive array of environmental, legal and safety rules. All these costs were created by the people and policies that Americans voted for. Joining China in profiting from slavery, pollution and intellectual theft is absolutely anti-American on every level. Also hypocritical if you vote for taxes, rules and restrictions on American businesses while using China to avoid them. Also if you move to Europe to get around paying taxes to America. American Buyers can only buy from what is available for purchase, prefer quality over disposability, and if given a choice would like to end slavery rather than be forced to support it.
The cost of living in Asia is a major factor in their economy.....inflating the cost of housing for insane profits is keeping most American factory workers unable to purchase a home...grandparents provide free child care for both working parents in asia…often sharing the same homes...here, you pay for child care to go to work ...you're in real estate...you should understand these things...people there also work 6 day work weeks ….and these are not slaves....I have lived and worked over there...lot of good people with sensible work ethics. There are sweat shops all over the world....including here that abuse the working class ...duh. Sensationalize all you want but I'd suggest you stop using the adjective "slave" for people you don't know and have no contact with....I would hope when you visited Costa Rica you didn't treat the service industry workers as "slaves" and that you'd tip them well.
