is it possible to buy American products, hire American people and stop foreign trade?

Answer 1

Yes it's possible. The real question though is, "Would we be better off?" To that, my answer is NO, and here is why.

Economics 101: We allocate scarce resources to what we believe gives us the greatest utility. If we, as a country, have less resources of a specific good or service because it is not as economical for us to produce it, OR if we can produce something MORE economically than others, it behooves us to trade. We will end up with more goods/services than we would otherwise have if we were to try to produce it on our own.

A different thought on the topic could be that if we did change into a completely self-sufficient economy, we may be more likely to NOT be living with as much debt. I don't think that is likely because I do not think we (as a country) would voluntarily choose to live within our means if that meant living with less.

Answer 2

No. Why would America want to be cut off from world commerce. How many american jobs would be lost if the exported goods we create were no longer sold? At this point, I don't think it's even possible though. Technology allows businesses to be so interconnected and no company would want to lose money. The stock market would crash and life would be running out of control.

Answer 3

lots of products got too expensive using american labor, that's why so much production was sent to cheaper labor countries, otherwise, people wouldn't buy the products because they'd be too expensive

Answer 4

yeah, and we could all grow our own fruits and vegetables, too. It will be like the middle ages again...