Brexit

[Alan Klein]

By the way, that would make American imports cheaper for British consumers.

[Alan Klein]

What will Britain and others do if Trump gets legislation passed in America that tells all European countries to do away with their import duties for American goods or pay an American excise taxes equal to what you add to our exports to Europe?  If he keeps his word about fairness in trade, Europe will have to get ready for  huge changes in the way we do business with each other.

[Alan Klein]

It just hit me that's how he's going to get Mexico to pay for the wall.  With excise taxes charged to Mexican goods imported into the US.  That will also tell American companies not to ship their factories from America to Mexico at a loss of American jobs.

Britain being out of the EU, will also give the Brits similar flexibility like America that members who stay in the EU don't have.  Countries that want to trade with the US will have to drop their import duties.  This may force other countries to get out of the EU.  I'm just allowing my imagination to work right now.  But there could be huge changes coming for the EU now that Trump will be President.  That's why EU officials really wanted to have Clinton win.  She would keep everything the same at America workers disadvantage.  Europe better get ready.  There could be huge changes coming with the EU from this side of the Atlantic if Trump keeps his word.

[Rob C]

Well, I know that the Mustang is now finally being imported rt. hand drive...

But I can't, off the top of my head, think of a heap of things that Britain already buys from America. I'm sure they exist, but I can't think of any beyond Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort. Music doesn't seem to make much money for musicians anymore, only for the Internet companies who middleman it... Nike etc. are already too expensive for millions, and probably not really made in the US - thought I don't know - and if they do have to get made at home in their entirety, then they will only be affordable to the Trump family. And who owns companies like Nike anyway? Institutions. And who owns them? It's all too complex to say this company is American, this one British, this one French. Television and movies? Foreign sales buoy up all the producers, wherever they live or produce their artworks.

I think that the reality of the rust belts, whether in America, Scotland or the north of England, will remain red. They all depended on somebody needing their products at affordable prices. Only the low-wage economies can keep that going these days; expertise is no longer a thing few countries have: everybody can do it all. Even send up space stations. Or at the very least, rockets. Even N.K does that.

Mr Trump will probably find - as if he didn't already know - that not a lot can ever be changed for the better when it's already dead, and living alone as a nation is now perhaps too dificult even for one as large as the US.

I think the truth is that the same old same old will continue, even if to a new rhythm.

Rob

[RSL]

It just hit me that's how he's going to get Mexico to pay for the wall.  With excise taxes charged to Mexican goods imported into the US.  That will also tell American companies not to ship their factories from America to Mexico at a loss of American jobs.

Britain being out of the EU, will also give the Brits similar flexibility like America that members who stay in the EU don't have.  Countries that want to trade with the US will have to drop their import duties.  This may force other countries to get out of the EU.  I'm just allowing my imagination to work right now.  But there could be huge changes coming for the EU now that Trump will be President.  That's why EU officials really wanted to have Clinton win.  She would keep everything the same at America workers disadvantage.  Europe better get ready.  There could be huge changes coming with the EU from this side of the Atlantic if Trump keeps his word.

Not only that, Alan, if Trump follows through with what he said he'd do, he'll work to get the tax situation under control so American businesses can repatriate the many billions now parked overseas without paying an arm and two legs to do it.

There are huge changes coming for the whole Western world. YUUGE!

[Farmer]

Will the US stop domestic subsidies for things like agriculture, Alan?  Then we can take them seriously about free trade and removal of other barriers :-)

[Alan Klein]

Good point.  Subsidies are BS.    We should get rid of them.

[James Clark]

Well, I know that the Mustang is now finally being imported rt. hand drive...

But I can't, off the top of my head, think of a heap of things that Britain already buys from America. I'm sure they exist, but I can't think of any beyond Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort. Music doesn't seem to make much money for musicians anymore, only for the Internet companies who middleman it... Nike etc. are already too expensive for millions, and probably not really made in the US - thought I don't know - and if they do have to get made at home in their entirety, then they will only be affordable to the Trump family. And who owns companies like Nike anyway? Institutions. And who owns them? It's all too complex to say this company is American, this one British, this one French. Television and movies? Foreign sales buoy up all the producers, wherever they live or produce their artworks.

I think that the reality of the rust belts, whether in America, Scotland or the north of England, will remain red. They all depended on somebody needing their products at affordable prices. Only the low-wage economies can keep that going these days; expertise is no longer a thing few countries have: everybody can do it all. Even send up space stations. Or at the very least, rockets. Even N.K does that.

Mr Trump will probably find - as if he didn't already know - that not a lot can ever be changed for the better when it's already dead, and living alone as a nation is now perhaps too dificult even for one as large as the US.

I think the truth is that the same old same old will continue, even if to a new rhythm.

Rob

For better or for worse, exactly this.  The world is no longer, and never again can be, the first world manufacturing economy of the post-war era.  The economy IS global.  Production is spread internationally in whichever way is it's efficient. Domestic production relies less and less on middle-class manual labor and more on automation.  The genie is out of the bottle, and no amount of wishing can make it not so. 

Could you theoretically force manufacturing by lowering domestic tax rates? Maybe, but that won't address cost of labor.  Can you make foreign products uncompetitive via tariffs? I suppose, but imagine the economic horror that would bring upon the very people that already feel as if they can't make economic progress. 

The 60s are gone, gents.  Those jobs aren't coming back, illegals didn't take them in the first place, and no matter how many time you repeat "make America great again" they're not coming back.

[James Clark]

Good point.  Subsidies are BS.    We should get rid of them.

I largely agree. Good luck with that. 

[NancyP]

More importantly, will America be able to produce world class science and engineering without the assistance of foreign-born elite talent. Answer: Nope.  We have the laziest students in the developed world. I don't see that changing soon.

[eronald]

More importantly, will America be able to produce world class science and engineering without the assistance of foreign-born elite talent. Answer: Nope.  We have the laziest students in the developed world. I don't see that changing soon.

Mostly all the science grad students in the US are foreign-educated. The US uses the most effective educational strategy in the world: Selecting the best when they are already determined.

Edmund

[jfirneno]

For better or for worse, exactly this.  The world is no longer, and never again can be, the first world manufacturing economy of the post-war era.  The economy IS global.  Production is spread internationally in whichever way is it's efficient. Domestic production relies less and less on middle-class manual labor and more on automation.  The genie is out of the bottle, and no amount of wishing can make it not so. 

Could you theoretically force manufacturing by lowering domestic tax rates? Maybe, but that won't address cost of labor.  Can you make foreign products uncompetitive via tariffs? I suppose, but imagine the economic horror that would bring upon the very people that already feel as if they can't make economic progress. 

The 60s are gone, gents.  Those jobs aren't coming back, illegals didn't take them in the first place, and no matter how many time you repeat "make America great again" they're not coming back.

Says you.  Time will tell.

[James Clark]

Says you.  Time will tell.

Says immediate past history.  Even as wages and costs rise in China making domestic manufacturing more competitive, efficiencies are found in automation and in process and in areas that aren't the ones that have been decimated.  We already have a model, it happened under Obama and it says I'm right. And this is an optimistic scenario.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

...  We already have a model, it happened under Obama and it says I'm right...

And exactly what Obama's policy measures can be credited for that?

[Alan Klein]

Well, I know that the Mustang is now finally being imported rt. hand drive...

But I can't, off the top of my head, think of a heap of things that Britain already buys from America. I'm sure they exist, but I can't think of any beyond Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort. Music doesn't seem to make much money for musicians anymore, only for the Internet companies who middleman it... Nike etc. are already too expensive for millions, and probably not really made in the US - thought I don't know - and if they do have to get made at home in their entirety, then they will only be affordable to the Trump family. And who owns companies like Nike anyway? Institutions. And who owns them? It's all too complex to say this company is American, this one British, this one French. Television and movies? Foreign sales buoy up all the producers, wherever they live or produce their artworks.

I think that the reality of the rust belts, whether in America, Scotland or the north of England, will remain red. They all depended on somebody needing their products at affordable prices. Only the low-wage economies can keep that going these days; expertise is no longer a thing few countries have: everybody can do it all. Even send up space stations. Or at the very least, rockets. Even N.K does that.

Mr Trump will probably find - as if he didn't already know - that not a lot can ever be changed for the better when it's already dead, and living alone as a nation is now perhaps too dificult even for one as large as the US.

I think the truth is that the same old same old will continue, even if to a new rhythm.

Rob

America exported around 56 billion dollars to GB in 2015 and imported 58 billion dollars. https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/top/top1512yr.html

What if Trump, said that GB and other EU countries would have to drop their import taxes or we would add an import tax on their imports into our country?  We might be able to pay for Obamacare, or costs for NATO.   In any case what would Europe do?  AS an American, why is Europe penalizing American workers and our jobs making it harder for us to have more  jobs and sell our products?  That's not fair.  We  don't do that to you.    How does America benefit by Europe's import duties?   You see, this is what Trump was arguing about and why he won. 

By the way, Europe' government is just making everything more expensive for the purchaser.  So you buy a Nikon for 1450 Euros that sells for the equivalent of 1,000 in the USA.  We live better because imports are cheaper here in America.     Of course your import duties are what pays for socialize medicine.    It is free after all, isn't it?  You see Trump really isn't stupid.  He knows that open trade is good for countries but is using the unfairness of how governments implement the taxes relating to them, or mess with their currency values, to create imbalances that make American workers lose on jobs.  So he's going to squeeze the arms of the miscreant countries and negotiate better deals, or so he says.  All of this is going to effect the EU and how you do business.   It all going to be very fascinating how it all works out.   Get ready for a rocky ride. 

[James Clark]

And exactly what Obama's policy measures can be credited for that?

I'm not crediting Obama, merely pointing out that we have a model to look at that happened recently. But if we want to credit Trump for suggesting the idea, I'll gladly point out instead that it's actually already happening

[Rhossydd]

We live better because imports are cheaper here in America.     Of course your import duties are what pays for socialize medicine.

It's terribly sad that you think you 'live better' just because you can buy cheap imports.
I think my quality of life is better because we have brilliant free health care.

[Rob C]

It's terribly sad that you think you 'live better' just because you can buy cheap imports.
I think my quality of life is better because we have brilliant free health care.

I just posted this in the Trump argumemnt, but it fits here just as easily.

.........................

Medical problems used be a theory for me; at the age of sixty-five they came home to roost.

For years we paid for private insurance in Spain, and eventually it saved my life. It also saved that of my wife on several occasions, but one such time she was rushed to a state hospital because it was closer to us - and we were eligible - and the treatment she discovered there was every bit as good as that we'd been paying through the nose to get. So we cancelled the private policy.

My opinion? I think that the private system kept me in hospital far longer than I needed to be so as to milk the insurance company. I also remember the time when my wife was taken down to the operating theatre and a while later I was called from her room, where I was waiting, to the reception office. When I got there, they told me there was a problem with the insurance, and that they couldn't get clearance for the operation... Eventually they sorted it out and the op went ahead. Afterwards, my wife told me she lay there on the table, listening to a verbal fight about her going down in the anteroom where the medics were. Wonderful stuff. So much for money and medicine, insurance companies and doctors and private hospitals.

I have come to believe that a state-funded (meaning paid for by taxation) system, is the only one with any sense of morality attached. Most things cost so much money in medicine that only the well off can hope to pay what it takes. That can't be right where health is concerned. Having said which, I most certainly would prevent health tourism from happening. I would also exclude people who indulge in self-harm, which in my book, covers smoking, alcohol abuse and the cola products. A start could be made by putting bloody high taxes on the latter pair, and banning tobacco altogether, as it has absolutely nothing going for it that's positive.

It's so easy to be clinical and harsh about people and rights, but just wait if you ever happen to be in life-or-death need yourself. Sweet theory flies off to hide somewhere else.

Rob

[Rhossydd]

My opinion? I think that the private system kept me in hospital far longer than I needed to be so as to milk the insurance company.

Not sure it's to 'milk the insurance company'. There's certainly a lot of over treatment 'just in case' that often isn't really necessary and can put the patient at higher risk overall.

I have come to believe that a state-funded (meaning paid for by taxation) system, is the only one with any sense of morality attached.

Absolutely. Seeing some of the attitudes from the US makes me despair of any degree of human kindness and compassion.

[mbaginy]

... Of course your import duties are what pays for socialize medicine.    It is free after all, isn't it? ...

I've read a great deal about comparing Europe to the USA.  I find that a completely incorrect comparison.  The USA is one Country.  Europe (actually a continent) is probably denoted to mean the European Union.  While there are EU regulations, each member country is still indepentent and has their own laws and regulations.  While this may not be the ideal solution under for such a Union, it is so.

Alan, in Germany I pay roughly 570 Euros per month for my medical plan, my employer contributes 230 Euros.  I pay the first 2,100 Euros of annual bills I may submit to my medical insurance.  I hope you aren't really of the impression that all medicine in Europe (which country?  there is no European medical system or insurance)  is free.  It ain't.  It's f'n expensive!!  And when I retire in less than four years, I'll have to pay my monthly contributions without any employer's contributions.

I read a great deal of crap being written about the EU and the USA.  It's being stated as fact.  I wish there were some great, wise book in which all Facts were written.  There isn't.  Wikipedia isn't always completely right either.  Subjects aren't just black or White, right or wrong, left or right.