Now is the Time to Re-Industrialize America

A new word has entered Americans’ conversations. Tariffs. Everyone has an opinion. Something that has been around for centuries suddenly has everyone in a terrible state of panic. And even worse. This will cause inflation. How can we survive this? Well, we will, and it will make America a better place for all.

A previous post on this blog “In defense of Tariffs” explained what tariffs are, the economic theory behind free trade and how our trading partners are playing the game and manipulating WTO trade rules to cheat. Yes, I’m not a diplomat from the State Department so I can use the word cheat. Finally, after American industry after industry has been destroyed, America is waking up and asking for a level playing field. Not too much to ask for, but too much for our poor rich trading partners. In 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told unemployed workers that they needed to be retrained in computer science; that they should forget their previous jobs, it’s all over. Hillary lost the election and the bicoastal elite never got over it.

My daughter, in elementary school at the time asked me what is a “high class job”. I explained to her that a person who is making an honest living and doing the best he/she can do is in a high class job. It’s time for our elites to understand that.

Too many American products are no longer manufactured in America. Too many products are “designed in California, made in China”. It’s time for that to stop. Visiting stores such as Walmart reveals quintessential American products manufactured in China. Let’s not blame China. Let’s blame the American manufacturers who, to enhance their profits, are taking American jobs and exporting them worldwide to benefit from cheaper foreign labor, while the geniuses who run our government send foreign aid to help the poor exploited workers who are taking away our jobs. Enough already! It’s 2025. World War II is over for eighty years. We no longer need to support the world. Everyone cannot be a CEO, movie star, brain surgeon, lawyer, architect, engineer or general. An army made up of only officers with no enlisted personnel will not get very far. So we can now demand that America’s corporate leaders

bring the jobs back to America.

Lest one think this essay is jingoistic, it is not. When foreign countries violate World Trade Organization (WTO) rules with impunity by charging tariffs as high as 250% on American products, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn. They want to exclude the United States from their domestic market. They have their reasons and are entitled to them. We, too, have our reasons and they are just as legitimate. Defending American workers, the American economy and our national security and integrity as a nation are pretty good reasons. Over two hundred years ago, the French foreign Minister Duc de Talleyrand said “nations don’t have friends, they have interests”. How right he was. America has awakened  and recognized its interests and we are entitled to defend them.

Union membership has precipitously declined from 17.7 million in 1983 to 14.5 million in 2022.

The percentage of the workforce that is unionized halved during the same period, from 20.1% to 10.1%. Many union members today are service industry and white collar employees, for example, teachers and government workers. This is indicative of the smaller percentage of the work force employed in industry and the weakening of industrial labor unions which in the past were more influential and could thus fight for American jobs.  Corporations want to maximize income so they move jobs offshore and the unions are too weak to fight to keep jobs at home. The elites think all of this is fine as it doesn’t affect them. Just raise the hourly wage so service workers flipping hamburgers will be satisfied and keep their mouths shut. However, a nation of food service workers cannot keep America strong. Industrial production is necessary.

Inflation has been a problem in the American economy during the Presidencies of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden. Nixon tried wage and price controls with little success.  Ford promoted WIN (whip inflation now) buttons and Carter saw the prime rate rise to 21%. Paul Volcker became Chairman of the Federal Reserve and raised the federal funds rate to a high of 20% in June 1981 to break the back of the multi-year inflation primarily due to deficit spending during the Vietnam War. In contrast, Joe Biden and Democrat Party leaders spent most of the time denying that any inflation occurred at all. It is true that imported products are generally cheaper than domestically manufactured products due mainly to wage differentials. The American consumer can evade any inflationary pressures due to tariffs by simply buying American products. More importantly, tariffs on foreign manufactured products have two positive effects. Firstly is the pressure American manufacturers will feel to bring industry and jobs back home, providing increased utilization of industrial plants which are lying unused, promoting innovation and providing high paying union jobs, and thus increasing the tax rolls and decreasing the crushing deficit which is burdening our nation. The second positive effect of tariffs is that it will encourage foreign manufacturers to invest in manufacturing in the United States in order to avoid tariffs on their products. Already, Mercedes, Toyota, Subaru, Honda, Volkswagen and others are manufacturing some models in the US.  This is a good start. Other foreign manufacturers should respond to tariffs in a similar manner as America again will become re-industrialized.

It is not unreasonable for people to be concerned about tariffs and inflation.  Hopefully, understanding the real issues behind inflammatory words will enable the US to return to its former world wide industrial predominance.

Garry S. Sklar

Las Vegas, NV

March 11, 2025