Services Industries Key to Future American Jobs

I am always surprised by fellow Yanks who think time is linear. That what was in the past is a reflection of what must be in the future.

Neither time nor the way the world evolves is linear. In fact, the world can easily regress - which is a lesson we should have learned from WW1 where its aftermath actually created the seeds of WW2.

Manufacturing has evolved and, indeed, a lot of base manufacturing has left the US for good. Some will come back as soon as engineers learn how apply robotic manufacturing to produce any given product.

But the lesson we Yanks have to learn, and it seems we are having great difficulty in assimilating, is that Manufacturing is NOT the key economic factor anymore. Not in the US, and not in Europe either.

That which is key in any advancing economy is the Services Industries. And services require both intuition and intelligence in order to be sold to customers who understand their inherent added-value. Which means that we have a great challenge ahead of us.

What kind of challenge? We are a country where only tertiary-level education will allow one to obtain a decent living. What do the numbers say?
Here they are from the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), and I quote:

*Between 2000 and 2016, educational attainment rates among 25- to 29-year-olds increased.

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*During this time, the percentage who had received at least a high school diploma or its equivalent increased from 88 to 92 percent
*The percentage with an associate's or higher degree increased from 38 to 46 percent
*The percentage with a master's or higher degree increased from 5 to 9 percent.

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Whilst the above is highly promising in terms of eventual outcomes, what is not obvious is the fact that the higher numbers of those graduating with a post-secondary degree are only about 46% of the total number of students graduating from High School. That is, less than half.

Which means that less than half of our young adults graduating from high-school today do not attain the level where job-opportunities are most lucrative.

The statistics show that nearly-half who go on to a postsecondary degree do in fact become members of a select group who earn most in the country. A national objective thus becomes easily apparent.

Conclusion

We must have a post-secondary state-schooling that is free or nearly free to assure that the highest number possible of our youth continue their cycle of education as far as they can get in the post-secondary ladder of degrees.

From Pew Research: The difference in annual earnings between those who obtain a Bachelor’s degree and those only a High School degree is 1.6 to 1 - that is, almost double - as seen here:

No. :no:

Production is key to a thriving economy.

Services are provided to other's who work and have the wherewithal to pay.

However, most services, whether it be haircuts, laundry, food service, etc....all depend on the purchase of goods.

Thus barber/hair stylists need scissors, clippers, hair products, etc..

Food services need burgers, fries, chicken, soda, plates, cups, utensils, etc..

Sales professionals need something to sell; cars, clothing, homes. etc..

Rental agents need things to rent; furniture, apartments, vehicles, etc..

Doctor's need scalpels, medicines, bandages, sutures, needles, etc..

Everyone needs shoes, and clothing, and personal care products.

Something has to be produced in order to be either marketed, or support the services being rendered.

Without the basic common denominator of production, services cannot be maintained and inevitably fail.

Allowing production to concentrate outside the home economy makes the home economy more and more dependent on that source of production.

It would be better to have home grown production for the vast majority of our necessities, rather than cede control to outside forces.

This so as to reduce dependence to only those resources we cannot obtain in our own lands to produce the things we need, making for a far healthier economic system.

Even if we opt to automate, there would still be local jobs maintaining and improving those automated systems and our service industry would be secure.

Lafayette said:

I am always surprised by fellow Yanks who think time is linear. That what was in the past is a reflection of what must be in the future. ...
... Manufacturing has evolved and, indeed, a lot of base manufacturing has left the US for good. Some will come back as soon as engineers learn how apply robotic manufacturing to produce any given product.
But the lesson we Yanks have to learn, and it seems we are having great difficulty in assimilating, is that Manufacturing is NOT the key economic factor anymore. Not in the US, and not in Europe either.
That which is key in any advancing economy is the Services Industries. And services require both intuition and intelligence in order to be sold to customers who understand their inherent added-value. Which means that we have a great challenge ahead of us.
What kind of challenge? We are a country where only tertiary-level education will allow one to obtain a decent living. ...

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Lafayette, I agree that any significant improvement of our nation's educational and training systems would be reflected by no less significant improvement of our economic and social conditions. I'm among the proponents for USA adopting the trade policy described by Wikipedia's “Import Certificates” article. It is a self funding policy. Enacting it does not seriously deny resources necessary to enact any other tasks; even great tasks. If we knew how to significantly improve our education and training, we would now have already accomplished a great deal toward that goal. We tried trowing money at the problem; that hasn't worked.

If we had excellent educational and training systems. There'd be less or no need for the Import Certificate policy because we'd likely have little or no trade deficit; we may achieve a trade surplus. But until we achieve such excellence, enacting the import certificate policy is justified.

Respectfully, Supposn

I'm Supposn said:

… Trade deficits are always net detrimental to their nations' GDPs and drag upon their numbers of jobs; (refer to post #20).
Regardless of a nation's economy in any particular year, (i.e. in better or poorer years), if a nation experienced an annual trade deficit, their annual GDP and numbers of jobs in those years were less than otherwise; (otherwise being if they had not experienced an annual trade deficit). USA has experienced annual trade deficits of goods every year in excess of a half century. ...I'm a proponent of USA adopting the trade policy described by Wikipedia's “Import Certificates” article. ...

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What happened historically with America's Trade Deficit. See this infographic (if need be click to open it to full history by selecting "Max").

The "trip year" was 1991, when the deficit went to hell in a handbasket.

What happened in 1991? China came out of its closet.

Fix that one-problem with one-country and the deficit could be closed, or seriously diminished.

Raise trade tariffs? Yes, but not against the world. China's "free ride" has to come to a screeching halt*.

*They have, finally, more than enough internal-Demand to feed/house/employ their people ...

Lafayette said:

What happened historically with America's Trade Deficit. See this infographic (if need be click to open it to full history by selecting "Max").

The "trip year" was 1991, when the deficit went to hell in a handbasket.

What happened in 1991? China came out of its closet.

Fix that one-problem with one-country and the deficit could be closed, or seriously diminished.

Raise trade tariffs? Yes, but not against the world. China's "free ride" has to come to a screeching halt*.

*They have, finally, more than enough internal-Demand to feed/house/employ their people ...

Click to expand...

Lafayette, Wikipedia's article “Import Certificates” describes a trade policy that's substantially market rather than government driven; it is superior to a tariffs, pure free trade, or any other trade policy.
Within that substantially market rather than government driven policy; government is not permitted to choose winner or losers. USA's adoption of the unilateral trade policy would, if not entirely eliminating, certainly, significantly reduce USA's annual trade deficits of goods, increase our GDP and our numbers of jobs more than otherwise.

[If increased prices of imports sold to USA were drastically greater, we still could not have confidence that tariffs would reduce our trade deficits to the extents that Import certificates are able to do. The amount of such price increases, (i.e. regardless of how small an increase of import prices to USA purchasers), the policy will accomplish its purpose]. Additionally if those prices are higher, this policy serves as an indirect but effective price subsidy for USA's exported goods. This is due to markets' behaviors rather than additional costs levied upon anyone].

Other than not being applicable to specifically listed scarce or precious mineral materials integral to any globally traded item, it does not discriminate among foreign nations, or enterprises, or types of goods. It's applicable to manufacturing, agricultural products, but it's inapplicable to intangibles such as intellectual property.

Levying tariffs on Chinese goods is not an effective remedy to our chronic annual trade deficits. The same types of goods would be imported from lower wage nations other than China. Leavening tariffs upon particular types of goods reduces the advantages of those goods produced by lower wage nations but leaves our USA producers at disadvantage to other products imported from lower wage nations.

Refer to Wikipedia's “Import Certificates” article.
Respectfully, Supposn

Lafayette said:

I am always surprised by fellow Yanks who think time is linear. That what was in the past is a reflection of what must be in the future.

Neither time nor the way the world evolves is linear. In fact, the world can easily regress - which is a lesson we should have learned from WW1 where its aftermath actually created the seeds of WW2.

Manufacturing has evolved and, indeed, a lot of base manufacturing has left the US for good. Some will come back as soon as engineers learn how apply robotic manufacturing to produce any given product.

But the lesson we Yanks have to learn, and it seems we are having great difficulty in assimilating, is that Manufacturing is NOT the key economic factor anymore. Not in the US, and not in Europe either.

That which is key in any advancing economy is the Services Industries. And services require both intuition and intelligence in order to be sold to customers who understand their inherent added-value. Which means that we have a great challenge ahead of us.

What kind of challenge? We are a country where only tertiary-level education will allow one to obtain a decent living. What do the numbers say?
Here they are from the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), and I quote:


Whilst the above is highly promising in terms of eventual outcomes, what is not obvious is the fact that the higher numbers of those graduating with a post-secondary degree are only about 46% of the total number of students graduating from High School. That is, less than half.

Which means that less than half of our young adults graduating from high-school today do not attain the level where job-opportunities are most lucrative.

The statistics show that nearly-half who go on to a postsecondary degree do in fact become members of a select group who earn most in the country. A national objective thus becomes easily apparent.

Conclusion

We must have a post-secondary state-schooling that is free or nearly free to assure that the highest number possible of our youth continue their cycle of education as far as they can get in the post-secondary ladder of degrees.

From Pew Research: The difference in annual earnings between those who obtain a Bachelor’s degree and those only a High School degree is 1.6 to 1 - that is, almost double - as seen here:

Click to expand...

I am sure you feel very chuffed in your slight of the Americans, but the reality is that manufacturing is an important component of the economy at local levels and those jobs are not as readily replaced by service sector jobs. Manufacturing is not the end all and be all of economics, but the US is a very large place with people scattered all throughout it. Those little places need work too and the people are not willing to pack into urban sprawl like rates in London as readily as those in the UK do.

backpacker said:

I am sure you feel very chuffed in your slight of the Americans, but the reality is that manufacturing is an important component of the economy at local levels and those jobs are not as readily replaced by service sector jobs. Manufacturing is not the end all and be all of economics, but the US is a very large place with people scattered all throughout it. Those little places need work too and the people are not willing to pack into urban sprawl like rates in London as readily as those in the UK do.

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I'm Supposn said:

Lafayette, Wikipedia's article “Import Certificates” describes a trade policy that's substantially market rather than government driven; it is superior to a tariffs, pure free trade, or any other trade policy. … Other than not being applicable to specifically listed scarce or precious mineral materials integral to any globally traded item, it does not discriminate among foreign nations, or enterprises, or types of goods. It's applicable to manufacturing, agricultural products, but it's inapplicable to intangibles such as intellectual property. ...

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Backpacker, refer to Wikipedia's “Import Certificates” article.
It's of some advantage to any USA producer, (which includes foreign corporations' subsidiaries producing goods in the USA) that compete or aspire to compete with foreign goods anywhere in the world; (but its particularly of advantage within USA's domestic marketplaces),

If we consider importing and exporting as a single foreign trade industry, its of no detriment to any industry. It's applicable to the products of sheep ranchers, farmers, meat packers or truck manufacturers.

Respectfully, Supposn

The so called service industry took over our economy back in the early 80's. Were the author says he see's it as our future is laughable. It is a terrible economy with a pie that doesn't grow, and every one chasing after the hand full of rich people trying to service them.


Who ever wrote this I will guess is less than 40 years old and it a Democrat to boot. If you want unsound economic advice, this would be an example of a left wing scenario.

But since the poster is from France, and left wing liberal **** heads prevail over there, just ask La Penn...... I will take it with no meaning..

"... That which is key in any advancing economy is the Services Industries. ..."

Yup - see Greece, the vacation country for Europeans.
Beautiful country, lots of history, produces next to nothing except for some olives ... but had masses of Service Industries: everything that entails tourism.

The EU had to bail them out before the whole country filed for bankruptcy.

backpacker said:

I am sure you feel very chuffed in your slight of the Americans, but the reality is that manufacturing is an important component of the economy at local levels and those jobs are not as readily replaced by service sector jobs.

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It aint necessarily so.

Manufacturing jobs account for only 12% of the total. Go look it up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

People like you are dreaming of the old-days. We, as a nation, are changing full-speed from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.

And it scares the hell out of a lotta people ...

PS: I am not slighting Americans - I am one. But a long time ago I left the US and settled in Europe. Doing the exact opposite of my parents. It opened my eyes. (The US lost its way fighting a toothless dragon called "Communism".)

NAFTA has worked wonders for employment in America, Canada and Mexico since its inception.

So, yes, car-parts are made in Mexico (in American plants), then sent to the US. If they were still manufactured in the US, the costs would be higher and fewer people would be buying American cars. (And that is NOT a casual reflection. It is the damn truth and any American car manufacturer will not deny it.)

People like Donald Dork do not understand that simple fact. Because, the guy is an economic illiterate. Good luck with him - I could actually care less. He could not have got elected dog-catcher in any developed nation in Europe.

The US has never been so disconnected to what is happening in the world and The Dork is blind to the consequences of his own personal misjudgement. Because he thinks narcissistically that he's always right.

The guy is sick, sick, sick in the head - and come November we have a chance to sideline him.

Just like the Replicants sidelined Obama in the 2010 midterms and it would be a fitting justice to do so ...

Lafayette said:

It aint necessarily so.

Manufacturing jobs account for only 12% of the total. Go look it up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

People like you are dreaming of the old-days. We, as a nation, are changing full-speed from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.

And it scares the hell out of a lotta people ...

PS: I am not slighting Americans - I am one. But a long time ago I left the US and settled in Europe. Doing the exact opposite of my parents. It opened my eyes. (The US lost its way fighting a toothless dragon called "Communism".)

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LOL I am not old enough to have old days to dream of in relation to work. You still are missing the point--you cannot use national aggregate totals to judge the importance of manufacturing in places where manufacturing happens.

Lafayette said:

... Manufacturing jobs account for only 12% of the total. Go look it up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ...

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Lafayette, if as you state Bureau of Labor Statistics reports “manufacturing jobs account for only 12% of the total (USA jobs), they're probably not including all labor within USA enterprises that are not considered as manufacturers but do provide goods and service products in support of USA manufacturing enterprises.

The 12% you refer to are not producing goods that are unimportant to USA's economy. But that low portion of USA's jobs reflect USA's chronic annual trade deficit's of goods which reduce our GDP more than otherwise and drag upon our nation's numbers of jobs.

I'm a proponent of the trade policy described within Wikipedia's “Import certificates” article. Tariff policies usually target a few manufacturing products or industries. Import Certificate policy is equally applicable to almost all goods. (It is not applicable to intangibles such as intellectual property, or to values of specifically listed scarce or precious mineral materials integral to globally traded goods). It is a substantially more market and less government driven policy that's equitably applicable to the products of farms, ranches, and factories.

Respectfully, Supposn

Read up on the net and sum effect of AI and robotics.
Technological unemployment is poised to make 75-85% of ALL human labor irrelevant in the next twenty years...first here, then globally.
Service? Artificial intelligence and advanced robotics will diminish the human role in service, too.
It is already poised to lay waste to the so called "information economy" because humans aren't really needed there either.

In thirty years, human labor will be reduced to a small handful of the skilled trades, like carpentry, plumbing and HVAC installation and repair. Human labor will be a niche market.



"We need to start thinking now about what to do when large sections of the population become unemployable through no fault of their own."

SERVICES INDUSTRY JOBS ARE THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

backpacker said:

Manufacturing is not the end all and be all of economics, but the US is a very large place with people scattered all throughout it. Those little places need work too and the people are not willing to pack into urban sprawl like rates in London as readily as those in the UK do.

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America will do what it needs to do to occupy its people with gainful employment.

And it will continue to build/manufacture products of all types. But it is keeping costs down by employing robotics, which is why Manufacturing employment has withered over the past four decades since the turn of the century.

So, Manufacturing will not need the same manpower on the shop-floor as in the past. Moreover, running a robotics manufacturing plant requires higher-level skilled talent.

True Story: I'm from central Massachusetts that had, once upon a time, a flourishing plastics business post-WW2 in which both my parents were employed all their lives. Those plants left in the 1980s and went south. Then from the south they moved to Mexico and finally in the 1990s the plastics-industry diminished significantly because it could not compete with Chinese cost-pricing of most basic plastics goods.

I questioned the Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the history of manufacturing employment. This is the historical average since the late 1930s:


Manufacturing shot-up quickly in WW2, then settled at a relative high plateau. Then in the late 1990s, when China opened itself to the world, the manufacturing line plummets. That last sprint southeast in the line is due to the replacement of "manpower" by "robot-power" in American manufacturing is due to two factors..

The first being the long-term trend and the second being the Great Recession in 2010.

Read the "handwriting-on-the-wall", will you? Before it comes to YourTown, America and slaps you in the head. Jobs in America are being created in the Services Industries. Whazzat?

Well, it is actually "soft-jobs" like restaurants. But it is also higher-level jobs at good pay in the Services Industries sector. Whazzat?

From the dictionary here:

Service industry (ECONOMICS)

Alternative Titles: tertiary industry, tertiary sector

Service industry, an industry in that part of the economy that creates services rather than tangible objects. Economists divide all economic activity into two broad categories, goods and services. Goods-producing industries are agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and construction; each of them creates some kind of tangible object. Service industries include everything else: banking, communications, wholesale and retail trade, all professional services such as engineering, computer software development, and medicine, nonprofit economic activity, all consumer services, and all government services, including defense and administration of justice. A services-dominated economy is characteristic of developed countries. In less-developed countries most people are employed in primary activities such as agriculture and mining.

The proportion of the world economy devoted to services grew steadily during the 20th century. In the United States, for example, the service sector accounted for more than half the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1929, two-thirds in 1978, and more than three-quarters in 1993. In the early 21st century, service industries accounted for more than three-fifths of the global GDP and employed more than one-third of the labour force worldwide.

The simplest explanation for the growth of service industries is that goods production has become increasingly mechanized. Because machines allow a smaller workforce to produce more tangible goods, the service functions of distribution, management, finance, and sales become relatively more important. Growth in the service sector also results from a large increase in government employment.

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As you can see in the graphic for Manufacturing Employment, it has lately turned to a positive slope.

I doubt seriously that the slope will change rapidly and shoot upwards. It's a slow positive slope, meaning Manufacturing employment will remain steady but on a slower-slope positive ...

Lafayette said:

I am always surprised by fellow Yanks who think time is linear. That what was in the past is a reflection of what must be in the future.

Neither time nor the way the world evolves is linear. In fact, the world can easily regress - which is a lesson we should have learned from WW1 where its aftermath actually created the seeds of WW2.

Manufacturing has evolved and, indeed, a lot of base manufacturing has left the US for good. Some will come back as soon as engineers learn how apply robotic manufacturing to produce any given product.

But the lesson we Yanks have to learn, and it seems we are having great difficulty in assimilating, is that Manufacturing is NOT the key economic factor anymore. Not in the US, and not in Europe either.

That which is key in any advancing economy is the Services Industries. And services require both intuition and intelligence in order to be sold to customers who understand their inherent added-value. Which means that we have a great challenge ahead of us.

What kind of challenge? We are a country where only tertiary-level education will allow one to obtain a decent living. What do the numbers say?
Here they are from the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), and I quote:


Whilst the above is highly promising in terms of eventual outcomes, what is not obvious is the fact that the higher numbers of those graduating with a post-secondary degree are only about 46% of the total number of students graduating from High School. That is, less than half.

Which means that less than half of our young adults graduating from high-school today do not attain the level where job-opportunities are most lucrative.

The statistics show that nearly-half who go on to a postsecondary degree do in fact become members of a select group who earn most in the country. A national objective thus becomes easily apparent.

Conclusion

We must have a post-secondary state-schooling that is free or nearly free to assure that the highest number possible of our youth continue their cycle of education as far as they can get in the post-secondary ladder of degrees.

From Pew Research: The difference in annual earnings between those who obtain a Bachelor’s degree and those only a High School degree is 1.6 to 1 - that is, almost double - as seen here:

Click to expand...

You know, you've only ever given really bad advice or offered up really bad ideas for our Nations economy, and this is no different.
Its a little like taking advice from Xi Jinping, or Putin

One way to measure a Nations economic strength is its ability to sustain itself in times of conflict or war. Can we sustain ourself if global supply chains were interrupted ?

The less dependent we are on imports and exports, the stronger and more resilient our economy is, so its stands to reason that a mixed economy with a strong manufacturing sector is more stable than a service based economy, or a dependent economy

China is a extremely dependent centrally controlled economy, dependent on imports of raw material and of-course exports. China's continued trade violations and currency manipulation among other things is a reflection of just how important global supply chains are to the Chinese economy and gaining and maintaining market share for the exports in Countries like the US

Trump and his economic advisors understand this, they're well aware of just how vulnerable the Chinese economy is and just how important a strong Amerixan manufacturing sector is

Lafayette said:

NAFTA has worked wonders for employment in America, Canada and Mexico since its inception.

So, yes, car-parts are made in Mexico (in American plants), then sent to the US. If they were still manufactured in the US, the costs would be higher and fewer people would be buying American cars. (And that is NOT a casual reflection. It is the damn truth and any American car manufacturer will not deny it.)

People like Donald Dork do not understand that simple fact. Because, the guy is an economic illiterate. Good luck with him - I could actually care less. He could not have got elected dog-catcher in any developed nation in Europe.

The US has never been so disconnected to what is happening in the world and The Dork is blind to the consequences of his own personal misjudgement. Because he thinks narcissistically that he's always right.

The guy is sick, sick, sick in the head - and come November we have a chance to sideline him.

Just like the Replicants sidelined Obama in the 2010 midterms and it would be a fitting justice to do so ...

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You started a thread advocating for a service based US economy with a limited manufacturing capacity thats TOTALLY DEPENDENT on global supply chains, and your'e calling Donald Trump economically illiterate ?

Pot meet kettle, seriously

And Trumps smart enough to know our NAFTA trading partners have been using NAFTA to gain a unfair advantage over the US and that Non-NAFTA Countries like China, Korea and Japan have been using NAFTA as a backdoor into the US markets

Canada's single largest export to the US is value added trade. Nations like China import parts and sub-assemblies into to Canada and Mexico where their used in manufacturing and then exported to the US marked as Canadian and Mexican exports

Candada and Mexico simply re-export them here without adding value, and the impact from dumping Chinese goods on our manufacturing and wages is the same as if they were shipped directly here

Fenton said:

You started a thread advocating for a service based US economy with a limited manufacturing capacity thats TOTALLY DEPENDENT on global supply chains, and your'e calling Donald Trump economically illiterate ?

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Wrong, as usual. You are keeping to form?

I started a thread as I usually do with factual evidence (usually based upon good research). You responded with your usual nonsense.

That's all you're good for ... stirring the shat.

Fenton said:

And Trumps smart enough to know our NAFTA trading partners have been using NAFTA to gain a unfair advantage over the US and that Non-NAFTA Countries like China, Korea and Japan have been using NAFTA as a backdoor into the US markets

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Trump's a first-class AH. He's been that way all his life - born a bully! He's fixated upon the fact that the US is a fat old-lady who cannot compete in this Brave New World of ours, where the second largest economy is China.

And dolts like you cannot understand that China will not go away overnight. It is an economic might to be reckoned with.

Which means trade-negotiations are traditionally held at the WTO. Not unilaterally between countries. GATT was the latest, and it is already 25-years old!

Fenton said:

Canada's single largest export to the US is value added trade. Nations like China import parts and sub-assemblies into to Canada and Mexico where their used in manufacturing and then exported to the US marked as Canadian and Mexican exports

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So what?

You don't think American companies export sub-systems to other countries that are integrated into finished products! This happens in Information Technology every day of the year, where (at least) the US remains competitive. But, in manufactured hard-goods the US has lost its competitive edge.

Uncle Sam has been sitting on his fat-ass whilst the rest of the world was playing catch-up in terms of basic manufacturing costs. So now it is yelling "FOUL!" as regards international trade? Too late! We should have signed TPP, but we did not!

Fenton said:

Candada and Mexico simply re-export them here without adding value, and the impact from dumping Chinese goods on our manufacturing and wages is the same as if they were shipped directly here

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And you are lucky they are doing so. Otherwise, if those parts were manufactured in the US and incorporated into finished products, Americans would find them too expensive and not purchase them!

At the very beginning of the Industrial Age (mid-19th century) the United States did the same damn thing! It shipped looms made in the northeast to production lines all over Europe because they were high quality and cheaper!

Just what makes you think that, because America has high manufacturing-costs, it can dictate trade on a unilateral level? Never heard of the World Trade Organization, which has been negotiating successfully trade patterns? If America wants better hardgoods trade patterns what it should do is install more robots in manufacturing and thus bring down overall manufacturing input costs.

Which is what it IS doing! In that manner it will once again become competitive. Maybe!

But Donald Dork pissing into the wind with his high-handed manner will get the US NOWHERE. He refused to continue the TransPacific Partnership agreements that would have settled trade-disputes and augmented international-trade thus benefitting the US. And China was a signatory!!!

Which brings the world back to ZERO trade agreements signed!

Donald Dork's fate is to become the worst PotUS in a hundred years ...

PS: China is a major world power economically, second only to the US and catching up fast! It was willing to sign a trade agreement augmenting import tariffs to the US. Donald Dork refused the gambit! Why! Somebody on Fox News at midnight (whilst he was watching) said he should "renegotiate the agreement". So, like the dork he his, he changed his mind ...

Fenton said:

The less dependent we are on imports and exports, the stronger and more resilient our economy is, so its stands to reason that a mixed economy with a strong manufacturing sector is more stable than a service based economy, or a dependent economy

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This is the sort of myopic nonsense that thrives on the Replicant Right.

The US is an ordinary trading partner in a world where it NO LONGER DOMINATES TRADE.

Wakey, wakey! There is a New World Order around us, and instead of crying like a baby how it aint fair, we should adjust internally the way the country is run. Namely, the Chinese are educating and graduating engineers 2/3/4 times as much as the US, because the tertiary education is free!

Whilst we are looking at India to give us the talent we need to keep up in key technologies.

Hillary and Bernie had the strategic idea of offering low-cost tertiary-education to all families earning less than $100K annually - which is the median salary of America. And we as a nation were evidently captivated by the idea - because we vote Hillary as PotUS by a significant voting plurality margin of 2%!

Then an archaic instrument called the Electoral College - which is not the least bit democratic because it falsifies the popular-vote count - upset the electoral apple-cart. And we have Donald Dork as PotUS.

Which is why more of America's youth every year is looking outside the US for a cheaper means to get a solid education that it cannot afford back home ... !!! We are graduating barely 40% of our high-school students into post-secondary schooling because even the cheapest state-school is too damn expensive.

When are we ever gonna learn!

Lafayette said:

This is the sort of myopic nonsense that thrives on the Replicant Right.

The US is an ordinary trading partner in a world where it NO LONGER DOMINATES TRADE.

Wakey, wakey! There is a New World Order around us, and instead of crying like a baby how it aint fair, we should adjust internally the way the country is run. Namely, the Chinese are educating and graduating engineers 2/3/4 times as much as the US, because the tertiary education is free!

Whilst we are looking at India to give us the talent we need to keep up in key technologies.

Hillary and Bernie had the strategic idea of offering low-cost tertiary-education to all families earning less than $100K annually - which is the median salary of America. And we as a nation were evidently captivated by the idea - because we vote Hillary as PotUS by a significant voting plurality margin of 2%!

Then an archaic instrument called the Electoral College - which is not the least bit democratic because it falsifies the popular-vote count - upset the electoral apple-cart. And we have Donald Dork as PotUS.

Which is why more of America's youth every year is looking outside the US for a cheaper means to get a solid education that it cannot afford back home ... !!! We are graduating barely 40% of our high-school students into post-secondary schooling because even the cheapest state-school is too damn expensive.

When are we ever gonna learn!

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First, Trump derangement syndrome does not equate to a well informed and researched opinion on the US economy or trade for that matter. Leave your obsessing and fetishizing of our President out of the discussion please

As far a the US not being the dominate trading partner ? Tumps not imposing tariffs so we can return to a post war manufacturing capacity, no one has ever claimed that was his intention, and no one's whining.

Trumps doing the EXACT SAME THING THE EU did when it imposed a 73 percent tariff on Chinese steel back in 2016
The EU also imposed a 58 percent import duty on transshipments of Chinese steel

When Trump announced his tariffs the hypocrites at the EU threatened retaliatory tarrifs on American imports.

I say if the EU doesn't recognize the USs authority to impose retaliatory tariffs on illegally dumped Chinese steel and other goods, or to retaliate against our other trading partners who place huge tarrifs on Americsn exports , they can go pound sand.

Germany is one of the worst offenders when it comes to unfair trade practices. They exploit the EUs fixed value across all member Nations to run up massive trade surpluses with no consequence

Normally the value of a Nations sovereign currency is influenced by their trade balance. Whem their trade surplus increases so does the value of their currency. This makes their exports more expensive which gives importers a chance to compete

Germany can continue to run massive Trade deficits with no impact whatsoever on the value of the Euro, and they've been using that to gain a unfair advantage over their trading partners for YEARS

I'm sure, Russia, the EU, China, Japan, Canada and Mexico would LOVE for the US to devolve into a service oriented economy. Is great for them while it guts American domestic production, but Trump has basically told them to **** off, and many of supporters agree.

We've spent 30 trillion dollars on defense since 1949 defending and protecting our NATO partners, many of which are our trading partners.

European NATO Nations and Canada still havent met their agree upon 2 percent of GDP defense spending targets, but they think they have the right to dictate our trade policy ? Lol !

Look we just got through with a President who made weakening America and screwing the Middle class and blue collar worker one of his primary objectives.
We're done with that, and if our trading partners dont like it ? **** em

Fenton said:

First, Trump derangement syndrome does not equate to a well informed and researched opinion on the US economy or trade for that matter. Leave your obsessing and fetishizing of our President out of the discussion please

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This comment is so patently wrong, you must be equally deranged.

The man is suffering from acute narcissism and has been all his life.

From Psychology Today ("The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump"), quote:

On February 28 (2017), we published a post, "The Elephant in the Room: It’s time we talked openly about Donald Trump’s mental health," which went viral with close to a million reads. People on both sides of the political spectrum—as well as some mental health professionals—weighed in with hundreds of comments.

One comment was from Hal Brown, MSW, a colleague of John Gartner, Ph.D., whom we mentioned in the post. John is the founder of Duty to Warn (link is external), an organization intent on warning our country that we are in dire trouble due to our president’s mental instability. More than 60,000 mental health professionals have signed John’s petition, which states:

“We, the undersigned mental health professionals, believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States. And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is ‘unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.’”

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The man is sick, sick, sick and to not recognize that very evident fact must mean one is just as sick ...

Fenton said:

You started a thread advocating for a service based US economy with a limited manufacturing capacity thats TOTALLY DEPENDENT on global supply chains, and your'e calling Donald Trump economically illiterate ?

Pot meet kettle, seriously

And Trumps smart enough to know our NAFTA trading partners have been using NAFTA to gain a unfair advantage over the US and that Non-NAFTA Countries like China, Korea and Japan have been using NAFTA as a backdoor into the US markets

Canada's single largest export to the US is value added trade. Nations like China import parts and sub-assemblies into to Canada and Mexico where their used in manufacturing and then exported to the US marked as Canadian and Mexican exports

Candada and Mexico simply re-export them here without adding value, and the impact from dumping Chinese goods on our manufacturing and wages is the same as if they were shipped directly here

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Useless and empty rhetoric.

Moving right along ...

Fenton said:

And Trumps smart enough to know our NAFTA trading partners have been using NAFTA to gain a unfair advantage over the US and that Non-NAFTA Countries like China, Korea and Japan have been using NAFTA as a backdoor into the US markets

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More useless rhetoric of no consequence whatsoever - it is devoid of factual evidence.

Your spleen bust with rage?

M r a ...

Lafayette said:

It aint necessarily so.

Manufacturing jobs account for only 12% of the total. Go look it up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

People like you are dreaming of the old-days. We, as a nation, are changing full-speed from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.

And it scares the hell out of a lotta people ...

PS: I am not slighting Americans - I am one. But a long time ago I left the US and settled in Europe. Doing the exact opposite of my parents. It opened my eyes. (The US lost its way fighting a toothless dragon called "Communism".)

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Then you're an American immigrant practicing being a Frenchman.
Sorry, you don't know diddly about what's been happening here.
And you may want to read up on our robot overlords and what they have in store for us.
Humans Need Not Apply isn't just some cute YouTube video, it's the future.

And since you ARE in France, you may want to think long and hard about the concept of Universal Basic Income, because France isn't the only place where UBI is going to become crucial.