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You’re missing the point here imo. This is economics 101 level analysis. America isn’t drilling for oil and then trading oil for Japanese cars. That’s what a persistent and high trade deficit means.
America is creating dollars ex-nihilo and then trading these dollars for real overseas goods. This is how having the reserve currency is a huge blessing, since we can trade unbacked paper money for real cars, computers, microwaves, etc!
But this blessing turns into a curse. This benefits individuals and orgs which can create dollars out of nothing, who are people with assets who can create money through debt. The government debt being at $37T is an exact symptom of this too, all these paper bonds have been exported overseas and we’ve received real items in return. The issue is that poorer people don’t benefit much from this “print money for overseas goods system” and it increases wealth inequality over time. Also, it hollows out your manufacturing base, for an increasingly financialized economy (dominated by the coastal regions in the US)
Tarriffs attempt to undo this curse, as being the reserve currency is starting to cause major issues at home (wealth inequality, ballooning government debt, no manufacturing is a national security issue). There’s going to be major pain. But it’s better now, than later, when the USG goes ~bankrupt and needs to default on the entire financial system. That’s gonna be some pain…
This is the bullshit allegation though.
Working class Americans have higher material quality of life than their peers in every other rich country, barring a handful of microstates like Luxembourg, or small countries blessed by geography, resources and good government like Norway and Switzerland.
The problems America has - with crime, drugs, homelessness - are political choices. American plumbers aren’t being financially screwed over.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but American living standards for all but the very bottom are higher than Switzerland Norway UAE etc despite higher nominal GDP.
In terms of disposable income / consumption, certainly. I would consider Switzerland and Norway more civilized, in that I think someone in the 50th percentile of the income distribution does have higher QOL there.
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Of course, since we can export “nothing” (ie: fiat money) for something (like real imports). So our material wealth is greater than most other counties (who don’t have this power up).
Things are not all rosy though. Chronic disease is higher here than any western nation, life expectancy is down, and severely lags behind our peers, deaths of despair are up… material wealth is not the only type of wealth. And at what cost?
None of that will be solved by tariffs.
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Yeah, because we're literally fat on all the riches.
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