There's an interesting book called 23 things they don't tell you about capitalism that makes a pretty good argument for trade protectionism and tariffs. I like to buy my furniture at Dania/Plummer's/Scandanavian Design/whatever they call themselves where you are. It costs about 20-30% more than Ikea and looks about 70-80% better. Best of all, probably half the shit they sell is American... and the American stuff isn't more expensive, it's just different. It's largely made of wood. Slap a 30% tariff on imports and all of a sudden we have a furniture industry again. Lather, rinse, repeat for all durable goods. Behold. The midwest makes stuff again.
We can also remove subsidies and raise taxes on oil at such a rate that we use that money to invest in non-fossil fuels, making the shipping more expensive which adds a taffif-by-another-name to the costs of imported goods. Same way that we can make a major dent in the obesity epidemic by cutting corn and sugar subsidies.Slap a 30% tariff on imports and all of a sudden we have a furniture industry again. Lather, rinse, repeat for all durable goods.
Personally, I don't believe we should be using tax dollars to subsidize anything. But then, here in reality, that ain't going to happen. So, let's subsidize the stuff that is going to make the country better in the long term. We blow $80 Billion on corn every year. King Corn For what? We spend upwards of $100 billion a year on oil subsidies. $20 billion on sugar. What good do these things do for us long term? I'd rather be investing that cash into molten salt thorium reactors, solar panels, high density battery technologies, asteroid mining and stem cell organ growing. We have a ton of money in the USA, we just are not good at spending it wisely.
Ahem The United States blows a shit-ton of money on corn because corn is a ridiculously shippable, storable source of calories that can be used in soft power diplomacy. "Hedgerow to hedgerow" was about carrot-sticking the Soviet Union during their catastrophic draughts. 'member back in like '06 or whatever when the Bush Administration was all about gasahol and there were food riots in Venezuela and China and shit? Or the rice riots in 2008? The US subsidizes the fuck out of grain so that we can splash it around like a whale in Vegas. I'm not as up on the sugar subsidies but I'd reckon it's something similar. As far as oil, that's a little trickier because the US only started exporting oil recently... but in addition to being the world's largest oil and gas producer, four of the eleven largest refinery complexes in the world are in Texas or Louisiana. It's mostly foreign oil they process, too - the US has far more control over the world's energy supply than people give it credit for. By design. The defense budget for the United States in 2016 is $598 billion. By way of comparison, we spend a third of that on food and energy subsidies. Which do you think is a more cost-effective method for exercising foreign policy? Now - I'm not saying this is moral. I'm not saying this is ideal. I'm not saying I wouldn't change it - I'd want to talk to a whole bunch of smart people before I even thought about it. But I've found that the more I dig into things, the more the stupid ways of our world make sense.
So, my brain is odd. What follows is stuff that you almost certainly are familiar with, but I am going to type this out for my benefit, as well as the audience if interested. Time had this debate in 1980. For some reason, in my head I don't equate corn as 'grain' even though corn is a grass, a grain and a basic food staple. When I think of grain, I think of wheat, rye, barley, rice, but for some reason, not corn. One of the really great things that Carter did was use grain to drag the Soviets to the SALT II table and agree to end new missile developments. This plan was so successful you end up with TIme talking about weaponizing food. I once heard a great talk from a guy who lost everything in the Reagan Farm program where the government auctioned off family farms left and right who said that Reagan shot them all in the back after Carter's Embargo cut them off at the knees and left them with tons of high-interest debt and suddenly no customers. But these guys were all wheat and 'grain" farmers, and I never in my head made that link to corn. Found a page that does not look like a 90's Geocities regect Sugar subsidies, bty, are solely to fuck Cuba. They started in the late 50's as a way to hurt Cuban exports when the Castros took control of the country. This is why I tell people that the world is not black and white, never was that way and can never be. Tom Freidman has a point that the increase in global trade has done more for world peace and an end to major wars than anything else, and I tend in very broad strokes to agree with him. China is not going to go to war with the US any time soon... not to say there will be pot shots here and there, but it is too profitable to stay in the WTO framework. Its one of these things that now we are stuck with and it gives the impression that no matter what we do we end up just punching the tar baby harder. Hopefully I won't be around if the whole thing goes off the rails or we get a set of incompetent egomaniacs in charge.Now - I'm not saying this is moral. I'm not saying this is ideal. I'm not saying I wouldn't change it - I'd want to talk to a whole bunch of smart people before I even thought about it. But I've found that the more I dig into things, the more the stupid ways of our world make sense.
Interesting that you think that they are any better than Ikea. Last time I was there (about a year ago) I actually though their quality was worse than IKEA. Agree on the trariff thing. Its time we started bring them back to fight unfair competition from the 2nd and third world.I like to buy my furniture at Dania/Plummer's/Scandanavian Design/whatever they call themselves where you are. It costs about 20-30% more than Ikea and looks about 70-80% better. Best of all, probably half the shit they sell is American... and the American stuff isn't more expensive, it's just different.
Dania still sells the bedframe, dresser and nightstand I bought in 2001. The difference between the ones you buy now and the ones in my bedroom is mine are a little darker; they're solid oak and have had some sun over the past 15 years. They're also made in Corvallis. I suggest you give 'em another look.
Oh, man, I've got one better. This is my bedroom set. I got the bookcase bed, two of the open nightstands, and the six drawer dresser. I was called insane when I bought it. This shit will survive nuclear winter, outlive me and anyone I will this to and will be the last bedroom furniture I ever buy. My next splurge is going to be this maybe later in the year. They have some killer computer desks as well that are going to cost more than my first car. The side benefit of this is that the stuff is made local, to spec, and I was able to request the stain, build, etc. Say what you want about the Amish guys, but man those guys build great stuff.
