Why can't we do this if a US based company outsources....

[WCGreen]

Just slap a tarrif on the stuff coming back to the country.

[OhioChick]

1. That's the way it "should" be..... n/t

[mdmc]

15. ..

[onethatcares]

2. because

General Electric is one hell of a big company. They own just about all of our government.

They bring good things to life, dontcha know?

[WCGreen]

8. we are the largest market in the world, the most stable...

I know it's a pipe dream but you know, ya gotta think outside the box every now and then...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I don't know...

Somebody would probably yell foul...

But I see your point. If they have to pay a tariff, then the lower cost of doing business abroad would be eliminated, meaning they would do better to manufacture the goods right here.

[mdmc]

4. maybe a carbon tax?

fair..

[Booster]

5. Can't you just hear the Republicans if that is brought up?

[HereSince1628]

6. Isn't that the idea behind 'value added' taxes found in England?

:shrug:

[WCGreen]

7. I think the idea of VAT's are to raise revenue at every step of the

manufacturing and commercial process...

It's really a sales tax added at each level so that the whole amount of tax is not really known to the end user. It really does skew against the guy who has no disposable income and favors investors and people with money left over at the end of the week...

[GA_ArmyVet]

9. The answer is that to do so would worsen the already abysmal

US export market..If we charge a Tariff on imported goods, then we can expect a prohibitive import tariff on the goods we ship out..now...that being said, we export so little these days it may not actually hurt as much as it would help in reclaiming some production and industry in this country..it would however lead to a rise in prices of goods sold in stores.

[WCGreen]

10. Not all imports...

Just imports on production that left the US...

[whathehell]

11. This is what was done in the past, WC...

I remember when products made overseas were "expensive".

[unblock]

12. commie! enemy of free trade!

like any good idea, if proposed in congress it would be immediately buried in a deluge of thoughtless catchphrases.

[mmonk]

13. Because they own the country.

We the people was just a joke.

[Curmudgeoness]

14. I agree completely. But I am constantly told that this will not work.

That prices will go up, that all the other countries will slap tarrifs on all our products, that is it a global market and this is just not possible anymore.

But but but but...most other countries already do this. Why would it hurt us if it doesn't hurt them? I think that anything we can do ourselves here should have a tarrif. And if prices do go up, as I would expect, so would wages since there would be more jobs and fewer people looking for jobs. So we would really be in better shape.

Then again, we can do this ourselves just by refusing to buy things made elsewhere. We really do have more power than we are willing to admit to.