January 28, 2010 · 11:58 am

Advocate for the poor

So who needs a blanket?

Obama doubles duties on Chinese electric blankets.

9 Comments

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9 Responses to Advocate for the poor

  1. Greenwich Ex-Pat
    January 28, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    Hey, that’s OK with me. Double duties on everything from China, wouldn’t hurt my feelings. Of course, maybe we want to get a few factories up and running again before we go whole hog on this.

    Sorriest-arse day for the US was when we started toadying to China and buying their crappy stuff. We just handed them a stick to beat us with.

  2. christopherfountain
    January 28, 2010 at 6:14 pm

    yeah well, I figure someone on a budget isn’t gonna be helped when the price of an electric blanket is doubled. Trade barriers are great for the top of the pile, not so great for those at the bottom. Mind you, as the picture I selected suggests, there are alternatives to electric blankets.

  3. Arouet
    January 28, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    Trade barriers are arguably good for domestic unskilled labor.

  4. christopherfountain
    January 28, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    Until they want to buy something

  5. Greenwich Ex-Pat
    January 28, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    I associate trade barriers with better times in the US. I support, unapologetically, anything that makes life better for the citizens of this country. Trade with China has done nothing to improve the US, IMO. Some of the most expensive products I’ve ever purchased were from China. Because, cheap as they were, they broke or crapped out long before they should have. I’d rather spend a couple of bucks more on something made here, made well. And at least there’s some sort of recourse if the product is polluted or poisonous.

    I’m still trying to get over the fact that somehow it is OK to do any business at all with China, on any level. But perhaps someday their mobile execution vans (I’m not making this up) will become de rigeur in the US, for saying the wrong thing.

  6. christopherfountain
    January 28, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    I’m a free trader sort Ex-Pat, ad I think no trade barriers bring better times , so we’ll have to disagree. But I sure share your distaste for dealing with the Chinese. I won’t buy their shoddy products- false bargains, all, and who the hell knows what they dump in the food they ship here? I stay away from all frozen fish out of concern that it might have come from there, and do my best to figure out where my other food comes from – often, it’s hidden, which is frustrating, because I want nothing to do with the poisoners of China.

  7. Greenwich Ex-Pat
    January 28, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    C, don’t get me wrong, if there are products made well and better in another country, I’m all for bringing them in, on a friendly, fair and reciprocal basis. For example, I’m a huge fan of Italian design and manufacture, in many cases. If you live in the South, Indian textiles are a godsend in the summer, provided the dye is fast. Although Costa Rica and certain other places south of the border should be given more of a chance in that area, their textiles are just as good and I think we ought to pay more attention to our own hemisphere and encourage imports other than drugs and violence. Taiwan developed an excellent industry in brass items and I’ve always been impressed with their fabrication of the metal. I’ve been down to Jamaica and been impressed with some of their agricultural products. They’d about mess themselves if we started importing more stuff from them and why not?

    I’m just saying there are certain countries we should be dealing with and certain countries we should not, under any circumstances, deal with. And never to our own detriment in any case. I guess you could say I’m for “selective trade”.

  8. Arouet
    January 29, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    “We” is private industries getting supply contracts from foreign vendors. Are you saying the govt should prohibit citizens from transacting with the Chinese? Who “selects” the trade?

    There are persuasive arguments on both sides of the free trade issue. But don’t ignore the discount on electric blankets caused by the wage divide. The Chinese factories paying $10 per day can deliver a cheaper blanket than the US ones paying $10 per hour. So we save when we buy the blanket, but we pay when we provide the safety net to the unemployed. No free lunch.

  9. pulled up in OG
    January 29, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    This’ll warm up Peking quicker’n $30M worth of electric blankies.

    US announces Taiwan arms sale plans
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8488389.stm