Why does the US allow so much importation? Why dont we make it self sufficient?

Question

Why dont they just put a ban on importation? Maybe not a complete ban, but ban everything that cannot be produced right here in the US.

It would force industries to stay in the US, creating more jobs etc., it would help end child labor and slave wages, wich is what so many industries use outside of US, and then sell there products in the US... With the technology available now a days, we could make the US completely self sufficient... Why dont we?

Look at Cuba....

The costs of goods dont have to go up so much - just make sure that you limit the manufacturers percentage of profit. Were they were making a %50 profit before, now there making a %15 profit. Besides, this would force manufacturers to develop more efficient manufacturing methods, wich would also help out. Would the cost of goods really increase that much?

Answer 1

Because you wouldn't have any coffee to drink while contemplating how to pay $8.00 a gallon for gasoline to pour into your $110,000 Chevrolet (to run on its $2,000 tires).

Answer 2

You couldn't place a ban on those products without showing them to be inherently dangerous to the public at large. The Constitution offers us this freedom of choice - you know, life, liberty, yada yada.

The jobs you're talking about used to be here, until Reaganomics and NAFTA. The manufacturers figured it was best to move production to where labor was cheapest -- leaving more profits. I've seen the aftermath of this practice myself, and a generation or two after those jobs disappeared, the descendants of those workers are still struggling to get a foothold. They're like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

A self sufficient US would thin the line between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'.... and if you're one of the 'haves'.. what would you do? Keep 'em dumb. Dumb down the television, so the serious issues never get broadcast. Dumb down the schools so the kids can't compete with other producing nations. Dumb down the colleges so that the stuff you really need to know to survive doesn't ever get taught on a campus (even though you're paying through the nose to get 'educated'). Dumb down the people on how easy it is to get approved for a mortgage, and then foreclose on them when they realize how foolish they've been to sign up and spend to their means. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Answer 3

Isolationists would love this.

Our labor force is so expensive, it would drive up the cost of all those items that we currently import. Colbert's 12 tube socks would cost $20.00 instead of $2.00, etc.

Yeah, the American manufacturing worker would be making more money, but the additional cost of living would MORE than offset this. And of course non manufacturing workers would also be paying that additional cost as well.

Free trade makes things cost less and ultimately improves the standard of living IN GENERAL everywhere. However, it does this by equalizing wealth. That is, when the US sends a job overseas, we get cheaper goods, we lose a manfacturing employee ... BUT ... wherever we sent the job now has more money flowing into the economy.

Ultimately, their labor costs start to increase - until eventually they are sufficiently expensive that companies move elsewhere.

Why stop at the country level? Why not forbid trade over state lines? Our founders very wisely realized that the more people you can trade with, the better you get at it - and in the long run, everybody wins.

Answer 4

Because it is an inefficient use of limited resources, especially capital and human resources.

If we were to do that, and have to pay 2-3 times more for US made products that we currently get cheaper, that would cause a huge economic slowdown of all the other businesses, because there would be less money to spend.

By having to be self sufficient, we would necessarily hamper the creation of new jobs and industries, because the labor market and capital would be tied up.

And our exports would fall to nothing, as most other countries in the world depend on the US market for their economies.

It would be a disaster.

Answer 5

The reason is that this will cost American corporations lots of money when the same work and similar quality can be done overseas for a lot less cost to the corporation. I'm a little hesitant to say that it will create jobs for the jobless in America just because many of the factory work is deemed "too low" for some Americans regardless of their education (or lack of) and skill level (or lack of). Also this is very inefficient to produce everything because then you will also need to pillage OUR environment for the raw materials instead of using foreign materials.

Answer 6

It's called capitalism, supply and demand. Don't you always try to buy the best quality for the least money? That's what everybody does, and businesses know that. With Unions and government regulations driving up the cost of doing business here, they can gain a financial edge by moving to a country with no unions and fewer costly regulations.

Answer 7

An simple experiment will answer your question; try to name a country which did this and which was prosperous after they did it.

In addition, the main cause for the great depression was not the stock market but the reaction afterwards by politicians who tried exactly that by way of introduction of high trade tarifs to support their own industry. They failed!

Answer 8

Because other countries would notice that you were no longer prepared to buy their goods.

And they would retaliate by putting a big tax on yours. They would buy things from the Germans and Japanese instead, and everybody would end up poorer or out of a job.

That is one reason why the free market is a good thing. Another is that no politician ought to be able to tell me who I can or cannot buy a toothbrush from.

Answer 9

Great idea. Except that isn't what free trade is which is what the USA is very keen on. Why is there so much importation? Because everyone wants to buy cheap stuff and nobody wants to work for low wages. So get it from China where people are happy to work for low wages.

Answer 10

Cause it would cause severe inflation, because it is more expensive to produce here in the U.S. then if they do it in other countries. I don't know about you, but I don't want to start paying $50 for the shirt that used to be $20, but was raised because our government forced the company to stay in the U.S. and raise prices to cover higher manufacturing costs. Is that what you want?

Answer 11

Because businesses care more about money than they do about American self-sufficiency.

It's way more costly to do manufacturing in America and pay Americans a decent wage than it is to just have people in foreign countries make cheap things at a fraction of that wage.