Jason

Let’s look at the costs that are not directly seen on paper. The Chinese can make cheaper tires because they have much looser labor laws, i.e. they can underpay there employees to work longer hours, and in a much less safe environment. Although it isn’t something you or I might think about all the time, but why should you have cheaper tires at the expense of some little Chinese guys well being (and at the same time the expense of an American job)?

Should we get into the Chinese environmental policy? Where does the benefit of cheap tires outweigh the health of the planet and its occupants? The tires are made in a factory with less/no air quality regulations, packaged and ship half way around the world in a ship, then train, then truck, and still end up cheaper.

I am not saying nothing should be made in foreign factories, or that I am not guilty of buying something from china because it was $5 cheaper. However, I have had a conscious switch in thinking about buying things grown and made closer to home. Whether that support is to get fresher food, reduce my environmental impact, or support a local/regional/national business…..

Amos

I agree with your point, it is important to keep jobs in the US, and I’m also intereted to see what happens to inflation in the next 18-24 months.

In my view the most important part of keeping jobs in the US is to remain competitive in a global economy. We still do very well with this in the more value-added industries (e.g., marketing, legal, R&D, banking, etc.). These services are also part of the price we pay for things like tires, and for a lot of things, these costs are being incurred in the U.S. So even though tires are being made in China, the company importing those tires, distributing them, installing them, setting up the legal structures to do all this, and marketing all of it to us are still U.S. based companies.

I think it is wise for us to remain competitive by continuing to add value to products and services, not by protecting ourselves from competition from abroad.

That is a good point about copyright law. Maybe its a bit harder to enforce, to make the case in front of the trade groups (e.g., WTO). I did see that the “Intellectual Property Owners Association” spent $420,000 on lobbying various gov’t offices. I would guess that the people being harmed by the lack of copyright law is not concentrated and so it is very costly to get everyone together and lobby behind a similar front.

Hope your doing well.

I have 2 issues on trade:

First, keeping prices low and thus inflation low is extremely important, however, there also needs to be a balance between keeping jobs in the US vs outsourcing them. I’m not talking specifically about tire manufacturers, but in general.

Second, Why is it ok for our intellectual property industries (software, music, movies, pharmecutical, etc)to be not protected by China (and other countries) by not enforcing copyright law?

Steve