Friedman is one of the architects of the disastrous neo-liberal economics that emerged in the mid 80's that has exasperated wealth disparity since. The economy needs guard rails else people get unnecessarily or excessively exploited; the environment gets polluted, wealth gets syphoned out of the middle and lower classes etc.
Friedman does not consider in this video the national security concern of the US being unable to produce steel. If we outsourced all of our steel to china, and a war broke out, which imperiled the shipping relationship between china and the US, the US would be unable to make steel for a few months. A disaster.
With respect to batteries, raw materials and battery tech, the present moment is almost exactly described by that first paragraph.
Friedman also fails to consider the value of having the money directly in the USA vs "being sent to japan". An american worker who gets paid by american consumers will turn around and spend their american dollars in american restaurants, groceries, car dealerships, barbershops, houses, and so on. When a japanese employee gets paid by american consumers, the money goes to the same facilities in JAPAN, not the USA. The japanese probably spend a portion of the money on american services; but it will be less than if the money were kept in the USA.
Now, the Japanese are simply going to be so much more efficient at making some things, like rice cookers, and there is no point in america trying to outcompete the world on all production. We just can't. But there are a lot of things we ought to keep in-house. Be it for national security concerns. Be it for general raw materials like copper we can mine perfectly well in the states, with better safety and environmental regulations than places like Africa. And just because Americans should have some things that it makes exceedingly well for which we obtain a reputation. There was once a time when construction and power tools were predominantly made in the USA. We used to make things in this country for the country's consumers and life was better for it.
Blanket tariffs bad. Targeted tariffs for national security, are a tool that ought to be wielded to protect certain industries from being shipped overseas.
Yeah people don’t understand it’s a closed system excess dollars have to go somewhere either buying American products or investing in US dollar stocks and bonds
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u/pomod 2d ago
Friedman is one of the architects of the disastrous neo-liberal economics that emerged in the mid 80's that has exasperated wealth disparity since. The economy needs guard rails else people get unnecessarily or excessively exploited; the environment gets polluted, wealth gets syphoned out of the middle and lower classes etc.