There's most likely a method to the 20%. My guess is if you went through the math, the 20% on the finished good is pretty equal to the difference in labor in the cost of goods sold, specifically to the auto industry.

I will admit that I have become a pretty high level isolationist and wouldn't care if we abandoned the rest of the world and left them to their own devices. We have spent the last 100 years trying to help people around the world. We donate privately, and fund governmentally, far more aid than all other countries combined to areas of need around the world. We have pulled Europe's azz out of the fire twice. What we have gotten for it is resentment, at best, and down right hate at the worst. There is absolutely nothing we need that we can not procure within our own borders or from our puppy, Canada, to the north.

We have a $734B trade deficit. Simply put, not even counting all the donations and aid we send around the world, we ship out an additional $734B a year in gross profits (that's about $15 trillion in economic value based on current stock market PE ratios). We do this while having an increasing poverty rate, a growing welfare class, a real unemployment rate over 12%, almost $20T in national debt, and $105T in unfunded future liabilities. It's pretty simple, we consume as a nation more than we produce, yet we have people that can't find work. Gee, how do you solve that? Yes, stuff would cost more, but we would get upward wage pressure with real full employment. Plus you start giving a sense of purpose and responsibility back to people by allowing them to work and earn and have a future.

I would prefer that we close all foreign military bases and pull those troops home to new bases built along our borders. Not only do you instantly solve your border problems, you take all those government expenditures and have that money circulate through the US economy. What about our security? Simply put, we can not be invaded successfully even by the rest of the world combined given everyone's current military capabilities. The only way to get us is to nuke us and foreign bases won't stop that anyway. Could it throw the rest of the world into chaos? Sure, but not our problem.

(01-27-2017 12:12 PM)banker Wrote:  There's most likely a method to the 20%. My guess is if you went through the math, the 20% on the finished good is pretty equal to the difference in labor in the cost of goods sold, specifically to the auto industry.

I will admit that I have become a pretty high level isolationist and wouldn't care if we abandoned the rest of the world and left them to their own devices. We have spent the last 100 years trying to help people around the world. We donate privately, and fund governmentally, far more aid than all other countries combined to areas of need around the world. We have pulled Europe's azz out of the fire twice. What we have gotten for it is resentment, at best, and down right hate at the worst. There is absolutely nothing we need that we can not procure within our own borders or from our puppy, Canada, to the north.

We have a $734B trade deficit. Simply put, not even counting all the donations and aid we send around the world, we ship out an additional $734B a year in gross profits (that's about $15 trillion in economic value based on current stock market PE ratios). We do this while having an increasing poverty rate, a growing welfare class, a real unemployment rate over 12%, almost $20T in national debt, and $105T in unfunded future liabilities. It's pretty simple, we consume as a nation more than we produce, yet we have people that can't find work. Gee, how do you solve that? Yes, stuff would cost more, but we would get upward wage pressure with real full employment. Plus you start giving a sense of purpose and responsibility back to people by allowing them to work and earn and have a future.

I would prefer that we close all foreign military bases and pull those troops home to new bases built along our borders. Not only do you instantly solve your border problems, you take all those government expenditures and have that money circulate through the US economy. What about our security? Simply put, we can not be invaded successfully even by the rest of the world combined given everyone's current military capabilities. The only way to get us is to nuke us and foreign bases won't stop that anyway. Could it throw the rest of the world into chaos? Sure, but not our problem.

Lot there to digest..but..I like where you are going. I also believe we should draw down quite a bit worldwide with the exception of the seas and air...which of course can be done combined on Super Carriers. These things are incredible machines of both power projection and protection of world wide commerce.