02-15-2008, 08:42 AM
Think for a moment of all the items that you have that was imported in one form or another. How much more are you willing to pay for those items (25%, 100%, 500%) to protect or promote local?
Hawaii has no oil production, so what tariff would be imposed and what will that tariff do to your gasoline bills, electrical bills, all your purchases including locally produced goods? How will that additional fuel tariff impact the cost of producing local products, transporting them to market, and you getting to the store to buy it?
Will you still be in favor if all the imported electronic and computer devices cost 100% more? How about all the small foreign cars Hawaii seems to like, what will you do when parts become prohibitively expensive? Will the US auto makers lower cost (never have) for new cars or raise it (standard practice) to almost as much as the foreign cars?
What happens when food produced on Hawaii becomes a scarce commodity because of their lower price versus imported food, and production can't keep pace with demand, will prices remain low in the aloha spirit or will it rise with the demand in the true spirit of capitalism?
Even subsidies sound good until one ask the question, where is government getting the money for that subsidy? I think it's from us. So sure we can keep something locally produced via subsidies so long as you have the money to pay for it. But if you want it to happen but unwilling to pay for it, that's a big gap.
Of course there's the mechanism that does work in many places:
1. No tax on local produced items.
2. Government subsidized production energy cost for locally produced and sold items.
3. Truth in labeling for locally produced items.
4. Low/no cost loans for increase local production improvement to become competitive.
5. Increase spending on production to promote local products and services.
Taxing and tariffs isn't going to solve anything until we break our desire to have everything dirt cheap without regard to what it means. If we come to expect our electronic to be cheap, our food to be cheap, our commodities to be cheap, our services to be cheap, can we really accept higher prices for the sake of local? I think we're deluding ourselves. We will only accept local produced product and tariffs on imports so long as it doesn’t raise the price for something we want.
The truth is - people love tariffs on imported products so long as others are paying the cost, but not when they have to pay more. The second they are the ones who have to pay more…………
Hawaii has no oil production, so what tariff would be imposed and what will that tariff do to your gasoline bills, electrical bills, all your purchases including locally produced goods? How will that additional fuel tariff impact the cost of producing local products, transporting them to market, and you getting to the store to buy it?
Will you still be in favor if all the imported electronic and computer devices cost 100% more? How about all the small foreign cars Hawaii seems to like, what will you do when parts become prohibitively expensive? Will the US auto makers lower cost (never have) for new cars or raise it (standard practice) to almost as much as the foreign cars?
What happens when food produced on Hawaii becomes a scarce commodity because of their lower price versus imported food, and production can't keep pace with demand, will prices remain low in the aloha spirit or will it rise with the demand in the true spirit of capitalism?
Even subsidies sound good until one ask the question, where is government getting the money for that subsidy? I think it's from us. So sure we can keep something locally produced via subsidies so long as you have the money to pay for it. But if you want it to happen but unwilling to pay for it, that's a big gap.
Of course there's the mechanism that does work in many places:
1. No tax on local produced items.
2. Government subsidized production energy cost for locally produced and sold items.
3. Truth in labeling for locally produced items.
4. Low/no cost loans for increase local production improvement to become competitive.
5. Increase spending on production to promote local products and services.
Taxing and tariffs isn't going to solve anything until we break our desire to have everything dirt cheap without regard to what it means. If we come to expect our electronic to be cheap, our food to be cheap, our commodities to be cheap, our services to be cheap, can we really accept higher prices for the sake of local? I think we're deluding ourselves. We will only accept local produced product and tariffs on imports so long as it doesn’t raise the price for something we want.
The truth is - people love tariffs on imported products so long as others are paying the cost, but not when they have to pay more. The second they are the ones who have to pay more…………