Choose Quickly: Steel Industry or Chinese Purses?
Which could you not live without? The media says it is purses.... and tacos!
Readers, I was feeling a little worn out and beat down recently and then I saw this story on Channel 5 last night and I remembered why Cowtown Caller exists. When you have enemies this retarded, it makes life so much more fun.
Would you rather have a steel industry or imported Chinese handbags? This is a real question implicitly posed by Channel 5 on their evening broadcast on February 4th.
The segment continued at length raising various concerns about Trump’s tariffs. A boutique owner was given substantial airtime by the broadcaster to air her worries about her imported handbags from China. She alleged that her prices would skyrocket if tariffs were imposed on the handbags she sells.
In a sign that even the shameless corporate press was embarrassed about what they aired; the story is conspicuously missing from their website as of the time of this writing (10 AM Feb 5).
While any woman would certainly enjoy the widest possible selection of handbags, any sane person (male or female) in Middle America knows that steel is more important than Chanel.
The tariffs are an inextricably important element to defending America’s most important industries such as steel, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and microchips.
Glaringly, the Channel 5 report never discusses what China has done to America’s steel production through our country’s tariff-free “Free Trade” regime with China.
For years, China has been dumping low-quality steel into the U.S. through Vietnam. Although it is not the same quality, this steel is sold at such rock-bottom prices that American producers cannot compete with.
Other than a brief period during the first Trump Administration when the president wisely imposed high tariffs on foreign steel, the American steel industry has been in a prolonged contraction.
This is a national security issue. Tanks cannot be built from carbon fiber, they must be built from steel.
Morover, steel reduces housing costs by offering lower cost alternatives to woodframe houses and it is impractical to build skyscrapers without it.
Except for when steel is produced through electric “mini-mills,” steel production uses incredible amounts of coal and is important for supporting America’s energy producers.
Notably, China is not the only trade predator ripping off America’s steel industry. A substantial portion US steel production moved to Mexico after NAFTA, where it remains today. Mexico then ships its steel into the US market duty-free, while the Deep South and Rust Belt struggle to hold on.
Canada and the European Union also export a certain amount of steel to the US that would be better produced domestically.
Yet, when the media critics criticize Trump’s trade policies they do not tell their audiences this.
While Channel 5 pulls at its hair to tell you that Chinese handbags could be more expensive, other corporate outlets exclaim that their could be industry wide purse inflation. Town & Country published a story on February 5th warning that French purses could be more expensive too!
Oh no! What will Fulton Street do if the Gucki bags are as expensive as the Gucci ones in lower Manhattan!
Fox 4 DFW warned that tacos could be more expensive as well! They even found a local taco joint owner to say that his bills for boxes of limes could be as much as $60.
None of the outlets seem to make the obvious observation that purses and limes can be produced domestically. A quick Google search reveals plenty of extant handbag producers with “Made In America” labels. Florida is known for its citrus industry and California could produce more limes if it straightened out its agricultural regulations.
The media line seems to follow the arguments we commonly here about immigration ‘America can’t secure it’s borders because it will make our restaurants less good.’
One can not forget that this was an actual argument made by The New Yorker and the Clinton Campaign in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
America must now consider what is more important: the Steel industry or Purses?
I think I know the answer but: What say you?
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