If the federal government went back to it's constitutional roles (defense and post office only) then import duties could pay for it's running as they did for the first 100+ years.
Actually, I'm for removing all import duties. BUT, like I said earlier, if a foreign company wants to sell their manufactured products here, then they had better be manufacturing them here using American workers! If a foreign company wants to sell us their countriy's raw materials, then fine. But, then their markets must be "open" to buying our manufactured goods using that raw material without any duties imposed on it.
In short, the people in Washington, D.C. to whom we pay some of the highest salaries in the world to run our economy for us have got to start worrying about the bottom line. That is, they have got to start getting defensive and using policies that will turn our staggering trade deficit into a trade surplus! Instead of using manufacturing jobs, we should be gaining manufacturing jobs. Our economy, like a wounded animal, can only hemorrhage so long before it keels over dead!
Hey...has anybody noticed what is happening to the spot market price of gold? Well, it's now shot past $500 USD per troy ounce and looks like it will keep going strong for a while. Much of this sudden spurt in gold prices has to do with the ongoing collapse of the economies of the West. If it finally hits $1000 USD per troy ounce, expect to see much more debate about the USA's economic woes on the mainstream news media...
ken
