Kerry Sink, San Clemente
Back in the 1990s, when I first went into a Target store and an adjoining Walmart, I was blown away by all of the Chinese-made products. People were flocking to buy toys and bikes and everything for their kids, believing that they were saving money. All I saw was a bunch of junk that wouldn’t last a summer.
I’ll admit that I go to the Walmart, but all I will buy is paper products, laundry products and pet food. Sure, maybe some hygienic items and aspirin. But I look for the USA label and refuse to intentionally purchase products from elsewhere, if at all possible.
Sure, if you want lawn furniture or certain items you have no choice. I also would rather go to DeNault’s True Value Hardware than Lowe’s any day. For a few pennies more and less traffic, it’s worth it to me anyway.
Today, we owe China about $15 trillion dollars. Can you even fathom the interest on that money? We owe everyone money and everyone owes us, except for China.
Does anyone ever think of the toll on the environment by shipping all this junk here so we can save $5?
We have been the caretaker and cash register for too long, and I for one am grateful that we have someone on our side, even if he is a big buffoon. But as he’s our big buffoon, and if you don’t like it then you will have your chance to vote him out next time around. After we are more stable here, then we can go back to giving handouts. But I am not there yet.
I think in time, after all the panic and knee-jerking slows and things catch up to reality in business and Wall Street, we should see a normalization of trade across the board. Things just have a way of working themselves out over time, and then we can judge the outcome of re-balance, just as you would in your portfolio.
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