In Fair Foreign Trade, we buy from everyone, does anyone buy from the U.S. ?

Question

Does the U.S. serve as just the consumer to the world, buying from all countries, and not supporting it's own infrastructure?

Wow, thanks you guys so much.

Then I do not need to worry about voting for someone who is looking to change our current foreign trade.

Answer 1

Im not really sure what you mean wiht the fare trade detail or what you mean by supporting its own infrastructure, but the US has the begest economy as measured by GDP in the world. This means that the country produces the most goods and services in the world. It was over 13 trillion dollars in 2006. As ratio of production per person, it is about $43,000 per person, which is one of the highest in the world, and the highest of any major country. (There are a few small countries like bermuda and luxemborg that are higher, but the statistic is skewed because of foregn firms setting up addresses there and singal industries flurishing, etc)

With that said, what people dont realize is that despite manufacturing being smaller as a ratio of the economy then it has in the past, and a smaller portion of employment, the US still has the highest industrial output of any country in the world and is the second largest gross exporter, after Germany (Not China). The US also is the worls largest gross and het exportor of services.

Its just that we dont see US manufacturing in our daily lives on little tags, because we no longer produce low skill manufactured consumer products. We make aircraft, construction equipment, cars, biotechnolgy, high end electronics, software, chemicals, industrial machinery, and so on. And on a dollar basis, you can import a lot of cheap plastic junk in return for exporting one Boeing 747.

Here is a list of the top ten exporting countries in 2006 according ot the CIA world factbook:

(Side Note: And this past year, the weaker dollar has caused US exports to surge, so they are going to be about 10-12 percent higher for 2007.)

Germany: $1,131,000,000,000
United States:$1,023,000,000,000
China: $969,700,000,000
Japan: $615,800,000,000
France: $483,100,000,000
United Kingdom: $450,300,000,000
Italy: $417,100,000,000
Canada: $401,700,000,000
Netherlands: $391,100,000,000
Korea, South: $331,800,000,000

But what is bit misleading, is that in the case of the European nations, beacause they are smaller, a lot of things that are considered exports between one another, would just be trade between the states in the US.and not considered exports.

So In comparison, the European Union exports:

European Union: $ 1,330,000,000,000
United States: $1,023,000,000,000

But the European Union also has more people then the US:

European Union: 490,426,060
United States: 301,139,947

So as a ratio of exports/ person:

European Union: $2711/ person
United States: $3397/person

So the US exports more goods and services per person then Europe does.

Though we do have a higher trade deficit then Europe, because we are also the worlds largest importer, there is a gross misconception about the American economy, into thinking that we dont produce anything and that we only buy other people things.

Im not sure if the previous responnder intended to mean that to get the real deficit, you add the trade deficit and the investment deficit. If he/she did, then that is wrong. The two are the same thing. When a country has a trade surplus, it gets the currency of that nation, so it must then invest with that money in that nation. Thats why both numbers are the same. If they didnt invest in that nation, then the currency markest would be minippulated and you wouldnt have a trade deficit in the first place.

As far as government deficits go. Yeah the war is costing a lot, but it is the entitlement programs that are the real cause of the deficit. Social secirity, medicare, and medicaide now take up about 40% of the budget. Thats up from 33% in 2000. That increase alone is $286 billion a year. The deficit for the fiscal year that just ended in september was $180 billion. Therefore, ee would have a surplus right now if those programs grew at the same rate as the rest of the budget, which is still a lot consdering the massive increased in spending for the homeland security department and war spending as well as no child left behind which increased federal education spending by 140%.

Answer 2

Yes, other countries do buy from the U.S. Last year, they bought $1.4 trillion worth of stuff. This, however, is less that the amount of stuff the U.S. bought from other countries ($2.2 trillion). An economist would say that the U.S. had a trade deficit of approximately $800 billion last year.

Note, however, that these figures only include goods and services. When you take investments into account, the picture changes. Last year, Americans invested about $1.1 trillion abroad, while foreigners invested about $1.9 in the U.S. So, to quote our imaginary economist, the U.S. has a capital infolw of approximately $800 billion last year.

As to supporting the infrastructure, international trade has very little to do with it. Supporting the infrastructure is in most instances the government's business, but the government is spending too much money on wars at the moment...

Answer 3

To add to the above, this year (helped by the falling dollar making US exports and tourism into the US more enticing), US exports of goods AND services are on pace to reach 1.6 or 1.7 trillion dollars, which makes us the #1 exporter (including the services), and I'm pretty sure that will be an all-time world record. So your answer is yes, not only do we have customers but they buy more from the US than from any other country.

More to EB's point, when the U.S. buys imports and other countries are paid in U.S. dollars, they tend to reinvest those dollars in the US economy in some form or fashion. A lot of people misperceive that and say that our purchases of imports have to be "funded" by that foreign investment.

That's a strange thing to say since new money is created domestically every day and wealth grows every year and economics is not a zero-sum game. Actually that sentiment confuses cause and effect: their foreign investment opportunity tends to be funded by our buying their exports.

Answer 4

The US sells its resources to places like China who need raw materials to build their new cities, factories, and consumers products sent all around the world. Now the american economy is 90% consumption but that doesnt support our infrastructure it actually hurts it. f America doesnt get some industry we wont be able to support our economy and it will collapse (another world depression because America buys over 50% of everything made in the world).