I thought this was interesting: Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com ...sure we're about to give Americans a lot of money to spend, but it's actually a little discouraging when it will probably be spent largely on goods that are manufactured abroad. I wonder if there will be more discussion around the dubious "benefits" of our free trade deals if the economy tanks the next few years.
anyone with half a brain will use this money to pay off a loan or credit card debt and not buy some made in china trinket
Define free trade... Because it's historically been more of a one way street than a two way. We don't really impose any barriers for goods coming into our country (at least, no more than we do goods that are produced here), but other countries we trade with do. Do you have any idea how much more difficult it is to sell a medical device in China than it is here in the US or Europe? Yes, every country is different, and there are some different rules that apply to things like privacy protection in different countries, but before you can sell a device in China, you have to completely redo all of your clinical trials - apparently they believe the people over there are physically "different" from people over here... Anyways, it's little things like that which make trade not really even. What we really need is to start enforcing their laws on our imports on them - If they require additional tests for something, we'll require them too. If they require additional costly safety inspections, we'll require them too... It certainly would help with the trade situation, although it might also lead to other problems, like shortages of "Made in China" goods, or a price increase on those goods...
Dude, you're talking about a group of people who got into completely unaffordable loans, who carry an average of $8,000 in credit card debt, and who re-elected GW Bush. I think most people will just spend it. That said, I've accumulated a bit of debt buying a house, so mine is actually going to go toward that! Some politician (I forget which one) said it well when he said that people would rather not lose their job than have a cheaper T-shirt. Something I started wondering recently is if the cost of goods was really THAT MUCH more without overseas sweatshops. Like, I'm sure it was a little more pricy, but then again, I remember paying about 1/2 as much for a pair of American-made Levis in the 80's/90's than I do now for the foreign-made variety.
There was a financial planner on the news the other day. When asked about the rebate, her response was something like, "I know the US economy needs you to go spend that money on goods or services, but the best thing any person can do is to pay off some debt. Of course, if everyone did that, it wouldn't help the impending recession."
And thats precisely the point i was trying to make Decreasing the amount of "Made in China" goods or making them more expensive might have short term consequences of a shortage of some goods, but in the long term it would help stimulate our local economy and increase local manufacturing/production.
If I ever see that rebate (some questions there, I am not holding my breath!), I don't have a lot of debt, pay off my credit card every month anyway, so I would probably use it to buy groceries or go out to eat. (Local economy can have some stimulus... ).
As (i believe) daniel and i have discussed before, debt and savings are really two sides to the same coin - when someone says use the rebate to pay off your debts and you don't have any debts, it's best to use it to increase your savings instead. As for my personal situation, I pay my debts in full when they come up (that means credit card bill is fully paid every month). Currently the only long-term debt i have is for a new sofa i bought last fall, and that only because they gave me interest free financing for a year on it - the money for the sofa is in my bank account right now making me some money, and it will be until a day or so before they start charging me interest and i pay off the whole thing
That's my approach as well. With no debt I will probably just buy a few more shares of stock while the market is low. Tom
I'll use anything I get to reduce electric consumption and gas consumption. It's funny.....I use to buy based on the best deal for me (short term). Now I consider buying as "voting" for more of what I am buying. As a result, I "vote" for items that (hopefully) make the future better for all. (I want to vote for an electric car, an super energy efficient house, less paper but more useful information. etc. )
I was thinking about the same thing while I drove home today. It would be nice to put that "windfall" (if it comes to fruition) toward something that would reduce my personal energy consumption. That might mean something immediate, or it might mean saving it until I have to replace something and want to spring for the more efficient appliance or whatever.
Short term consequences? If we stopped Chinese goods from coming into this country our inflation would go through the roof. The only thing helping our inflation situation right now is china. Unlike other countries whose currency has gone up against the dollar, the yuan is pegged loosly to the US dollar. That has kept goods from China from sky rocketing in price. What we really need is for our government to force the Chinese government to slowly increase the value of the Yuan since it is currently undervalued (by a lot). A gradual increase would allow our economy to slowly adjust and bring back some of the manufacturing lost.
