Is Trump going to declare war on China? Is he going to build the wall and make Mexico pay for it? Is he going to tax foreign imports? With President Trump now in office, many Americans and other people from around the world are wondering what his next move is going to be. Perhaps, we are looking at a volatile and very unpredictable four years. Nonetheless, I believe that nothing is going to change immediately. The US government uses a system of checks and balances to keep everything in line, so President Trump cannot just begin the construction of a wall, for example. He must get Congressional approval first. He can’t send all the illegal immigrants back to Mexico immediately. The Supreme Court may rule that unconstitutional.
Even then, nothing major will happen that affects you and me daily. We will all live our lives as normal. Yes, there may be a rise in supremacy groups. This is not directly Trump’s fault, but rather an indirect side effect. The people who he represented during the election were previously, for the most part, denied a representative with the qualities that they wanted. These followers, at least a fraction of them, do have somewhat radical ideas about how America should be run. These Trump Supporters now commit hate crimes, and worse because their president is justification for their actions. Nonetheless, they do have a point. Industrial workers and white-collar workers are losing their jobs in America, as cheaper jobs shift to overseas locations where manufacturing is far cheaper. They are left unemployed, and they want to have their jobs back.
Trump has stated that he “plans to slap tariffs as high as 35% on Chinese goods,” according to Forbes. He plans on doing this to help create American jobs that went overseas to cheaper markets, China especially. Unfortunately, a tariff war would benefit nobody in our modern, globalized world. We rely on global trade for wealth and growth in the US and everywhere else in the world. The reason manufacturing jobs are leaving America and going to poorer nations is correlated to the development of the American workforce. The US is moving away from an industry-based economy and moving toward an information-based economy. If you place a tariff on Chinese goods, you are restricting the ability of the US economy to grow on its own. This tariff would inevitably raise the price of goods. To make goods in the US would cost nearly as much as the price of importing Chinese goods with the tariff. So, the likely effect on the Chinese economy and daily life in China is minimal. The most probable effect would perhaps be a slight rise in price for goods that are typically made for export. Yes, Trump’s policies may spark some US manufacturing and it could be a great way to send China’s export market elsewhere, but the effect would still be minimal on China.
The future of the Trump presidency is still very vague and could work out in a detrimental way to the world’s economy if certain actions are taken. If Trump places a tariff on China, the prices of goods could increase exponentially, keeping average Americans from the goods they used to be able to afford. If he builds the wall, he could waste many billions of taxpayer’s dollars. After all, most illegal immigrants fly in and overstay their visas. The question many Americans are asking now is, will Trump keep his election promises?
Matthew Low
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| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Donald_Trump_(29093637770).jpg |
Trump has stated that he “plans to slap tariffs as high as 35% on Chinese goods,” according to Forbes. He plans on doing this to help create American jobs that went overseas to cheaper markets, China especially. Unfortunately, a tariff war would benefit nobody in our modern, globalized world. We rely on global trade for wealth and growth in the US and everywhere else in the world. The reason manufacturing jobs are leaving America and going to poorer nations is correlated to the development of the American workforce. The US is moving away from an industry-based economy and moving toward an information-based economy. If you place a tariff on Chinese goods, you are restricting the ability of the US economy to grow on its own. This tariff would inevitably raise the price of goods. To make goods in the US would cost nearly as much as the price of importing Chinese goods with the tariff. So, the likely effect on the Chinese economy and daily life in China is minimal. The most probable effect would perhaps be a slight rise in price for goods that are typically made for export. Yes, Trump’s policies may spark some US manufacturing and it could be a great way to send China’s export market elsewhere, but the effect would still be minimal on China.
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| Mr. Trump photographed with Speaker Paul Ryan and Vice President Mike Pence https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Speaker_Ryan_with_Trump_and_Pence.jpg |
Matthew Low
