6 June 2018 Do We Want To Lead?

Do We Want To Lead?

As a country we need to decide if we want to lead and thus help direct world events or do we want to pull back and only act when forced too? This a critical issue that has a large impact in how countries deal with us, how much we budget for foreign activities and how our trade policies are formed.  

It is very easy to throw around catchy phrases like “America First,” however it is not that simple.  We cannot stand alone in the world.  Our economy is so intertwined with the rest of the world that we couldn’t even if we tried. Now we can lead and actively advance policies and investments that help America, but they also have to benefit the other trading partners.  Gone are the days when we can exploit another countries resources with little benefit to them, and that is a very good thing.  We should want and strive to have equitable agreements.  It does not a have to be a zero sum game were one side wins and the other loses.

Though we still have the largest economy in the world that is changing fast.  China and India are growing and in the coming decades will have larger economies. 

We have to lead if we want to be thought of as a partner.  There may be some hard truths that have to be told to certain industries that we cannot go back to the “good old days.”  Until we find a way to make coal have a much lesser impact on the environment, that industry is going to decline.  Technology has rendered a vast number of steel jobs obsolete.  The steel companies are not going to employ the numbers they did in the 1980’s and earlier. 

We can’t protect those jobs in those industries with tariffs. That just leads to other countries putting tariffs on our goods from other businesses.  That is zero sum game mentality.

We need to defend our companies from unfair trade practices in other countries. China can’t have open business here and we not there.  But you only get fair trade with being a fair trading partner.  You can only make global trade policies by leading the effort. Saying “America First” at all cost will only cost us. It will not have any benefit.