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Comment by wpdev_63 | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't correcting the large trade deficit between China and the US result in a net job increase in the long run?

It would take several years but we can build factories in rural parts of the US(you know, where people voted for Trump) or even in Mexico.

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From Kansas. From first hand experience people don't want to work in those jobs. Work at a printing company and we have had several open press operator positions for a year or so that start at $25 and get up to ~$35 over time and pay 100% of you HC premium, all you have to be is mechanically inclined and competent. Zero applicants. People don't think these jobs are resilient (we focus on small orders than ship in 2-3 days so we have to be stateside) or are not willing to work. I've suggested either recruit straight out of HS and offer some level of tuition reimbursement at the local CC or go immigrant or non-violent offenders out of the county jail. We've also seen some food processing plants derailed [1] over how it would impact the community [2][3] and xenophobia.

[1] http://www.cjonline.com/news/business/local/2017-11-20/tyson...

[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kansas-town-rejects-tyson-chick...

[3] https://www.npr.org/2018/03/19/595018875/somali-immigrants-h...

You got 1 example of an empty job, where there's something else might be going on, while there are whole industries being phased out.

Yes anecdotal for my press operator job. It's not the only open one we have. Also throwing in the chicken processing plant. I've read countless other articles though basically saying the same thing about these production/manual labor jobs that require little formal education but a decent amount of on the job training.

It will never happen. There will always be some lower labor cost region where manufacturing jobs can be sent, and there will always be some loophole which corporations can use to get around restrictions.

Yeah but there's a trade off with that. I'd imagine labor isn't as cheap as it used be(especially in China).

> It will never happen. There will always be some lower labor cost region where manufacturing jobs can be sent, and there will always be some loophole which corporations can use to get around restrictions.

It will have to happen. IIRC, the US has trade deficits with pretty much every country it trades with. At some point, those places are going to get tired of trading real goods for IOUs and IP, especially once there are competing providers of IOUs and IP.

Those other countries have developing economies and populations. It won't be long before the other large countries stop seeing the US as significant -- they'll be trading with each other where appropriate.

Isolationist policies result in the obvious: isolation.

> Those other countries have developing economies and populations. It won't be long before the other large countries stop seeing the US as significant -- they'll be trading with each other where appropriate.

Which is why the US needs to redevelop its economy to be able to produce more things that those countries might actually want to buy besides agricultural products. The IOU-based trade-deficit policy isn't going to cut it long term.

It would take several years but we can build factories in rural parts of the US(you know, where people voted for Trump) or even in Mexico.

The section 201 solar tariffs apply to crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules made in Mexico as well as in China. And to those made in Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Germany, South Korea, Canada... every country but the USA. This aspect has been under-reported outside of solar industry outlets. "Countering subsidized exports from China" is often tossed into mainstream news about this issue but the tariffs are curbing imports from everywhere. It seems crazy to me, and reminds me of the crazy steel and aluminum tariffs that have recently been imposed even on US allies.

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