Proudly Made In America
Manufacturing in America should be important to everyone. Please use this site to help you make informed decisions on what to buy.
-
Protectionism? Maybe, but so what.
Posted on April 3rd, 2009 6 commentsWhat is the purpose of the US economic stimulus package? The answer is relatively simple, to stimulate the US economy. So why would anyone question whether there is a provision in the stimulus to buy American? I support free trade and am not a fan of most protectionism, but that is not really the point since this has nothing to do with trade policy or general spending. Without focusing the stimulus on domestic industries, I am afraid that two things will happen; the stimulus will not be sufficient enough to stimulate the domestic economy due to stimulus dollars going elsewhere, and the US will be paying for failed stimulus to other nations.
The stimulus package needs to focus every dollar it can to the domestic economy. As Paul Krugman points out in his The Conscience of a Liberal post; “if macro policy isn’t coordinated internationally — and it isn’t — we’ll tend to end up with too little fiscal stimulus, everywhere.” This is why President Obama wanted to coordinate stimulus with the G20 nations.
I have always said that I do not mind paying taxes. I was fortunate enough to be born into a middleclass family in one of the greatest countries on earth. Paying taxes is just the cost of having the privilege of living here, as it is in any country. Taxes are not for raising money to stimulate the economies of other countries, that is the job of their governments. I think it is fine when it is for humanitarian purposes or to support national interests, but not as part of a domestic stimulus package and especially when we need to get our economy going first.
In short, our government needs to focus on improving our economy and making sure the stimulus is as effective as possible for the domestic economy. Improving the US economy will provide more long term benefit to the world economy then the lost, to external countries, stimulus would provide.
6 responses to “Protectionism? Maybe, but so what.”
-
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work 🙂
-
Heidi April 6th, 2009 at 02:55
Even if it is protectionism, don’t we have a right to do what every other country does? So Krugmann, and you, think it is okay in this case, but shouldn’t we be protecting strategic industries? If it is okay for stimulus why is it not okay for a general manufacturing base that we need to maintain?
-
Thanks for the nice post. I always try to bookmark concrete or construction related posts like this one.
-
On stimulus…what is not appreciated by democrats is that a public sector job is very different than a private sector one. The public sector job produces NOTHING. Worse, It takes at least 3-4 private sector jobs to support a public sector job. We do have necessary services that should come from the public sector, but overdoing it is not a solution, it is a PROBLEM. Democrats have been happy solving one problem (recessions) with another (public sector jobs).
-
thanks !! very helpful post!
-
;~* I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives great information “*:
Leave a reply
-
