I think Trump should come out with an incentive program to help businesses move from China to Central America. It would be a win/win/win. He could sell it as an effort to help the Triangle. It would take some pressure off of our immigration issue. And best of all, it would create other options besides China for cheap products. It wouldn't happen overnight, but the immigration problem isn't going away either, so we better get started with alternative solutions. So far, I don't see any changes to immigration that will stick when the next Dem administration is in place. We need something that will outlast Trump. I think E-Verify would be that thing, but no one seems willing to put that on the table. I think creating a viable economic situation in the Triangle is the next best option.
We could have, but instead we blew our wad on the Wall - something of limited effectiveness that would have been irrelevant to almost half the people entering the country illegally. And you're right. Some kind of major economic development initiative for Latin America would be genius, especially if it had incentives for businesses to leave China. Even though it would cost us up front, a Marshall Plan-style effort wouldn't be a bad idea and would save us money long term.
My understanding is that there is no immigration problem, and the Central American countries are just fine and not sh-t holes, so I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.
Tyranny and reprehensible?? How is it tyranny to promote doing business in a country? If you're saying the tyranny is directed at China....then big friggin "yeah". China is eating our lunch and using illegal practices to do so. We have go to find a way to take some of the air out of their balloon. If you think the Russian attempt to influence our political discourse is bad, wait until China gets rolling....and it is coming. China is a more disciplined adversary. They have as much (if not more)skill at Info Warfare as Russia. The only reason they haven't used it further is because they still estimate they can gain more ground by leveraging the US companies that want to play in China. These companies want to play in China so bad that they are willing to lobby on behalf of China and, in my eyes at least, tiptoe right up to the line of treason to earn a buck. While markets do work, they don't work perfectly and just because the market settles on a course of action, it doesn't mean it is the right course of action for our country.
Yes. Totalitarians always justify their own tyranny by blaming the other or the enemy. The US justified many bad deeds in the 20th century by invoking the threat of the Soviet Union. The US President should do nothing but get out of the way when that comes to the economy. Reduce taxes. Get rid of tariffs. Reduce regulations. That is all you need to do. I don't trust China either. I think the Communists there are not our allies and don't play fair. That said your whole description of them is fear mongering and that sentiment is just what I describe earlier. If China is worse than Russia, then we should do even worse things right? Russia, hasn't affected our politics in any significant way. No Trump voter I know was thinking Hillary was a good choice until some ham-handed Facebook advertisement showed up on their screen. Give me a break. The things you are describing should be dealt with through IP enforcement, preventing corporate espionage, good negotiation, free global trade, and an unhampered market in the US. There is a government role to play in security, rules setting, etc. For one, the US has leverage with China if we would bring up their religious and political persecutions. But Trump doesn't ever bring those things up. He has played very soft with China except for the tariffs, which are hurting our economy right now. Is perfection your requirement for any human system? The market process of course isn't perfect. Government intervention makes it less so. Hear is a hint. If the market sets a course of action. That means the people of the US have all had a hand in setting that course in a way that makes their life tangibly better. It is the most purely democratic process in existence. Having another entity come in and tinker with it just makes the common man's influence on the process much less significant. Also, you do know that Socialists of all stripes have made that same criticism of the market to justify their actions, right? Bolsheviks. Mensheviks. Italian Fascists. German National Socialists. American Progressives. They all hold the same view.
Monahan Your last two sentences are so on point . I read a book that touched on that very subject and it is enlightening and frightening to see how all socialistic Isms are similar under the skin and how democracy |capitalism|free enterprise are\were perceived as antithetical to all those ideologies. We as a country would do well to remember that. Just like we need to remember our democratic republic is antithetical to islam.
16 US Marines arrested for alleged crimes including human smuggling and drug-related offenses - CNNPolitics
As the head JAG at a military base where I used to volunteer told me, "the military is just a facet of society. Like the rest of society, we're mostly decent people, but we have our rapists, murderers, kidnappers, wife-beaters, thieves, and drug dealers. We're no different."
Here is a little food for thought about why I have said the things I said in this thread. Welcome to the Machine | National Review
