Buy American!?

Question

The United States has a trade deficit of over $650 billion. Imports, it is argued cost thousands of American workers jobs. What is your opinion about buying foreign products? Why do we do it? Should there be restrictions on imports? Do you try to "Buy American"?

Answer 1

While imports may cost some American workers jobs, they help other countries to pay for American exports and American assets, each of which creates jobs for other American workers.

You ask if I try to buy American; I don't, but I do have a Sony laptop that's made in the U.S. So let me ask you this: if Sony faced restrictions on importing its PRODUCTS, would they ever import a FACTORY into the U.S.?

Right now, non-U.S. companies create a lot of high-paying jobs in the U.S. European pharmaceutical industry, for example, can't get enough of American research scientists for its U.S. labs. Every major car company in the world, from Mercedes to Hyundai, has a design facility in Southern California (and those facilities keep getting into bidding wars over talented Art Center graduates). England's Barclays has built several major business units (from administration of exchange-traded funds to managing quantitative hedge funds) in San Francisco. American car companies lay people off, while Hyudai built a brand-new billion-dollar factory in Alabama in 2005. Why do foreign companies do it all? Because they believe that they will have free access to the U.S. market. If they didn't, they wouldn't hire beyond skeleton sales staff...

Answer 2

Why do we buy imports? Have you SEEN a Chevy Aveo or a Ford Focus??? Do you want your government to force you to buy a Chevy Aveo?

(Actually those cars are both imported from the overseas plants of US car makers but I'm making a rhetorical point here...)

Answer 3

the decline of US dollar will solve that by making imports more expensive.