In article . net,
Maxprop wrote:

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..
In article . net,
Maxprop wrote:

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..


So - tell me why you own a French yacht when there are so many more
expensive and inferior US made ones available.


She bought her boat used, Pete. It was the best boat available in her
price
range at the time.

Oh, I don't doubt it. Point is, tho, that Katy coulda bought a new US
made boat for a higher price and thereby supported US industry. It
might have been a smaller boat, or a worse equipped boat, or whatever,
of course.

They had just sold their smaller, US-built boat, and another smaller
US-built boat before that, IIRC. Chanteuse was a substantial size upgrade.

Perfectly rational decision - as far as 'rational' can be used WRT
boats anyway. Buy the best you can for the dollars you have available.

So - what's the difference with foodstuffs? Why insist that people have
to buy US grown produce instead of cheaper imported produce, when the
same logic isn't applied to other items - like boats.

That's my point.

Your point is correct. The vast majority of goods sold in the USA are of
foreign manufacture now. I'm always a bit amazed when I discover the
product I've bought is of local manufacture. Last figures I saw said the
trade deficit between the US and China was something like 78-22. One only
has to watch container ships entering and leaving San Francisco Bay to see
this--the incoming are loaded and way down on their waterlines, while the
departing vessels have empty containers and are riding high.

That's unsustainable in the longer term too, I think. We run trade
deficits with the USA. At the moment the Chinese demand for raw
materials is helping our economy along, haven't checked but I'd bet
we're running a fat surplus and our exports to China are in USD. You're
a nett importer of goods. I can't see how you can keep running a
country where your chief export seems to be US dollar debt.

PDW

"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..

That's unsustainable in the longer term too, I think. We run trade
deficits with the USA. At the moment the Chinese demand for raw
materials is helping our economy along, haven't checked but I'd bet
we're running a fat surplus and our exports to China are in USD. You're
a nett importer of goods. I can't see how you can keep running a
country where your chief export seems to be US dollar debt.

My best guess is that we can't. To add complexity to the problem, our
consumptive habits are being taxed by increasing crude prices along with
higher demand for fossil fuels. One reason for this is that China will soon
become a larger consumer of Middle Eastern oil than the US. The influence
US demand for oil has on crude prices will ultimately be less important in
light of that of mainland China.

The USA is living in the past in many respects. Our labor force can't come
to grips with the boilerplate fact that in a world economy the wages they've
grown accustomed to are simply not reasonable if they wish to keep their
jobs from being exported. Further, as you imply, we've evolved into a net
importer of consumer goods with a continuing decline in exports. To further
compound the economic miasma the government has begun to shoulder larger and
larger financial obligations, straining an already-strained middle class to
pay for it all. It's a recipe for disaster, and no one, especially our
legislators, want to talk about it. It's not politically expedient to
discuss such things, apparently, but the next generation or two won't have
much choice. We're leaving our kids and grandkids a dismal legacy. Al
Qaeda won't have to destroy us--we seem to be on course for doing that to
ourselves.

Max