What would happen in America if...

What would happen if America protected itself, by:

1) closing its borders?
2) raised prices on imported goods?
3) forced big companies to hire Americans?
4) deporting all illegal aliens?

I'd say that nothing bad would have happened, only good things.

But the G20 guys want to persuade us that protectionism is bad and globalism will benefit the poor countries.

My answer is: Bollocks!!!

The reason is simple: all the profits from outsourcing and exporting jobs go to the multinational corporations' board members and shared holders.

When an American was occupied in America by an American company, he was paid good money. A lot of the profits were given back to those that worked hard for the company's success, and that money was spent in the local market, creating more wealth.

But the average worker's pay in, let's say, China, or Vietnam, is so low, that most of the profits go back to the company shareholders' pockets.

Furthermore, the products produced in China and Vietnam are imported in America. This hits the American economy badly.

Does Obama think that multinational corporations will increase the paychecks of those poor workers that work from sunrise to sunset in god-awful conditions? if he does, then he is stupid. If he doesn't, then he is malevolent.

The above is valid for other countries as well, that may not be of the scale of America, but they have similar problems.

And another thing: when it was that America and other big countries experienced the largest growth? it was right after WWII, where there was extreme protectionism in almost all economies!

When protectionism was removed, in the recent years, we have a great decline in economy.

So, protectionism is bad my a$$. The only reason they want globalization is either for their corporate masters to become even richer or for some either more sinister reason.

Originally posted by masterp
What would happen if America protected itself, by:

1) closing its borders?
2) raised prices on imported goods?
3) forced big companies to hire Americans?
4) deporting all illegal aliens?

I'd say that nothing bad would have happened, only good things.

I think we would see rampant inflation, reprisals from countries exporting to the US, food shortages, retail prices shooting thru the roof, energy shortages and unprecedented price hikes, chaos and anarchy, looting in stores for rice and beans. Nothing bad???

Isolationism is attractive but the reality is that with the global economy and the corporate oligarchy, it ain't gonna happen no matter who is in the WH because big business pull the strings and no grass roots movement could garner enough support to make a tinkers damn.

Originally posted by whaaa

Originally posted by masterp
What would happen if America protected itself, by:

1) closing its borders?
2) raised prices on imported goods?
3) forced big companies to hire Americans?
4) deporting all illegal aliens?

I'd say that nothing bad would have happened, only good things.

I think we would see rampant inflation, reprisals from countries exporting to the US, food shortages, retail prices shooting thru the roof, energy shortages and unprecedented price hikes, chaos and anarchy, looting in stores for rice and beans. Nothing bad???

Isolationism is attractive but the reality is that with the global economy and the corporate oligarchy, it ain't gonna happen no matter who is in the WH because big business pull the strings and no grass roots movement could garner enough support to make a tinkers damn.

I would have to agree with whaaa.
-How do you expect to get a tomato/strawberry/_____ in February unless it's picked by an illegal immigrant?
-Without the cheap/slave labor we would have food shortages and the cost to produce the same product without slave labor would still make it cheaper to import from Mexico or Guatemala.
-Big business would leave our borders.
-Not that the manpower exists to deport all illegals or anything, but, if that happened I would assume Mexico collapses under the weight and it turns into major blow back...

With the exception of oil I think the US is resource rich enough for protectionism to work. Big business wouldn't leave because they would want to sell to the US market and want the huge wealth of resources the US has. It would completely ruin some nations, China for example (whose largest resource is people rather then arable land or mineral wealth) but the US would do fine.

They don't have to be based in America to sell to Americans. They just have to deal with high tariffs which would be paid for a dozen times over by cheap labor and a lack of regulation.

Originally posted by Jacob08
With the exception of oil I think the US is resource rich enough for protectionism to work.

But don't you see everything hinges on energy/oil. Without oil there would be no agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transport of goods or even a way to utilize the resources we have.

If energy producing nations ever decided to boycott the US; we would starve to death before we could transfer to natural gas and coal.

It make more sense to me to be friendly with other nations and develop a viable relationship that is benificial to all countries. The psychology of fear is making people be a skeered for no reason.

It's a brave new world, welcome to the monkey house.

[edit on 3-4-2009 by whaaa]