Existing Chinese tariffs made business difficult — recent retaliation made it unsustainable. By Tracie Sullivan, For Iron County Today When Utah Iron abruptly shuttered its mining operations in Iron County Wednesday, some were quick to point fingers at President Donald Trump, blaming his tariff policies for the closure. But…
“Let’s send the factories to another country. Then we won’t have factories anymore. What could possibly go wrong?”
And we know they understood this, because they explicitly didn’t outsource food production to another country. They subsidized local food production to keep it around.
Yes, but the US doesn’t have a directed economy. Consumers and businesses choose where to manufacture their goods. The US does subsidize auto manufacturing, for example.
We won the last two world wars with out producing everyone and engaging in attrition. Hey, let’s outsource our manufacturing capacity so we can fuck over unions! What do you mean we’re not prepared for a world war of attrition???
Yes, which is why sending all the business to them kicked off the current imbalance.
Easy to say in 2025
It was obvious back then too.
Easy to say in 1970.
“Let’s send the factories to another country. Then we won’t have factories anymore. What could possibly go wrong?”
And we know they understood this, because they explicitly didn’t outsource food production to another country. They subsidized local food production to keep it around.
By “they” you mean us?
I’m 1933 they knew the importance of keeping local industry alive https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AgriculturalSubsidyPrograms.html#%3A~%3Atext=Modern+agricultural+subsidy+programs+in%2CAgricultural+Adjustment+Act+of+1933.
Yes, but the US doesn’t have a directed economy. Consumers and businesses choose where to manufacture their goods. The US does subsidize auto manufacturing, for example.
Subsidies and taxes are how they direct the economy, yes. It’s not command and control.
But for national safety reasons, it’s stupid to lose certain functions. Food is one of those.
To me, manufacturing capacity would’ve been another, but Reagan.
We have manufacturing subsidies. Theres a lot of space between ideal market and national security risk
We won the last two world wars with out producing everyone and engaging in attrition. Hey, let’s outsource our manufacturing capacity so we can fuck over unions! What do you mean we’re not prepared for a world war of attrition???