Our government and economic system ask the poor and middle class to pay tariffs and higher interest for problems created by the private sector and others. There is a better way.
Foreign competition? It's complicated. Nearly all peer nations have some flavor of universal healthcare. US companies struggle with our insane and exorbitant system to cover employees, driving up business costs. Leveling the playing field could mean (a) adopting US single-payer universal healthcare, or (b) demanding all our trading partners stop providing their citizens with universal care. Related ref.: https://medium.com/@idember/universal-healthcare-boon-to-business-owners-3ff561951da1
Hmm... while I always respect your always-well-considered opinions, my friend, I'm not sure I agree this time. In general, I'd rather see tariffs than corporate welfare. American business should be able to compete in the global market as long as there is a level playing field, and that's what tariffs are for. The thing I don't like about how Trump, and now Biden, implemented tariffs is that the amounts seem relatively arbitrary. I'd rather see a standard formula based on how similar the labor market is to the U.S. If your country doesn't have a minimum wage at least as high as ours, you'll pay x% tariff. If you don't have child labor laws, you'll pay (x+y)%. There are many other factors (work week, workplace safety laws, etc.), but you see where I'm going. Not only would that level the playing field, it would put pressure on other countries to treat their workers better so that they could get more favorable treatment, and that would be good for the whole world. Right now, when it seems to be just "how much does the American president like us today," there's no real incentive to do anything. And while we're at it, I'd throw in human rights as a secondary factor in the formula on top of the economic ones. That means countries like China would be paying pretty high tariffs, while European countries that are more progressive than we are would pay nothing. Sounds about right to me.
Thanks for linking to the 2018 ABA article on corporate personhood. Great content. (Your link: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/we-the-people/we-the-people-corporations/#:~:text=This%20wasn't%20always%20the,corporations%20to%20continue%20in%20perpetuity)
Foreign competition? It's complicated. Nearly all peer nations have some flavor of universal healthcare. US companies struggle with our insane and exorbitant system to cover employees, driving up business costs. Leveling the playing field could mean (a) adopting US single-payer universal healthcare, or (b) demanding all our trading partners stop providing their citizens with universal care. Related ref.: https://medium.com/@idember/universal-healthcare-boon-to-business-owners-3ff561951da1
Hmm... while I always respect your always-well-considered opinions, my friend, I'm not sure I agree this time. In general, I'd rather see tariffs than corporate welfare. American business should be able to compete in the global market as long as there is a level playing field, and that's what tariffs are for. The thing I don't like about how Trump, and now Biden, implemented tariffs is that the amounts seem relatively arbitrary. I'd rather see a standard formula based on how similar the labor market is to the U.S. If your country doesn't have a minimum wage at least as high as ours, you'll pay x% tariff. If you don't have child labor laws, you'll pay (x+y)%. There are many other factors (work week, workplace safety laws, etc.), but you see where I'm going. Not only would that level the playing field, it would put pressure on other countries to treat their workers better so that they could get more favorable treatment, and that would be good for the whole world. Right now, when it seems to be just "how much does the American president like us today," there's no real incentive to do anything. And while we're at it, I'd throw in human rights as a secondary factor in the formula on top of the economic ones. That means countries like China would be paying pretty high tariffs, while European countries that are more progressive than we are would pay nothing. Sounds about right to me.