Trump closing border with Mexico

You have yet to cite anything to support your claims while we have both cited our trade deficit with Mexico and I have also cited the total trade deficit.

More than half a trillion dollars a year just vanishing into nothingness is unsustainable.

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When top Mexican Officials recently announced they will not stop caravans going to the USA, it really is about calling Trump’s bluff.

The question remains! Will Trump carry out his threat? What are the odds he actually does close down the border?

I’d say probably pretty good barring Mexico suddenly stepping up.

Its not “vanishing into nothingness.”
Its clear that you dont understand what a trade deficit actually is or mean. Quite simply, it means that we buy more than we sell from that trade partner.

No shit Maynard! That is money that is constantly bleeding out of the US never to return.

Ot won’t let me post 3 in a row, so this is a bit late:

Its a false equivalence, because the Vatican border is about 2 miles long, with a security force of approximately 140 Swiss guards. The US/mexico border is about 1954 miles long. In order to have the equivalent security forces, we would need nearly 137,000 border patrol agents along the border. That would be approximately 7 billion dollars in salaries, just for the labor force.

You missed something major, we are actually BUYING THINGS

I haven’t missed anything. It is a continual net flow of dollars out of the US to the tune of over half a bn dollars a year. That money isn’t coming back.

Are you claiming we are giving that money away?

You really seem to be working extra hard at not understanding the subject matter.

No, I never made any such claim. Most of it is spend on disposables thus adding nothing to our national wealth.

At some point, probably within the next decade this will result in the world losing faith in the USD and it will no longer be the world’s preferred and reserve currency.

What we’ll then have for all those trillions of dollars sent overseas are landfills that are running over, the inability to produce the products essential to our own economy, a collapsing currency and economy and runaway inflation.

The only way the trade deficit can even be financed now is by the US Gov’t constantly printing money out of thin air, a recipe for disaster.

So what’s the solution? Besides closing the mexican border. I’m not trying to get your goat hear, i would really like to hear what you think.

On which point?

Closing the MX/US border is a necessary short term step. We don’t have enough BPA’s to man the legal ports of entry, patrol the border, and deal with the detainees.

It is also necessary to get Mexico to stop enabling the caravans and start enforcing their own southern border.

The only solution to our overall trade deficit is to go back to producing things in the US not only for ourselves but that the rest of the world will buy.

Part of that requires playing a lot of hardball with China and the EU. It may not win us any friends but we need their respect much more than their friendship.

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I don’t claim to be an expert on these things, and although i strongly disagree with you on almost everything, i can agree that we should be more self-sufficient.
I dont think we can afford to screw over long-term military and economic allies as we have in Europe. That seems very dangerous. I also think that we will devastate certain industries if trade from Mexico suddenly stops.
I inderstand the desire for a change, but im just not convinced this is the best way.

How is reciprocal trade screwing anyone over?

Well, 20 characters… .Exactly!

So once again you seem to have no idea what you’re talking about.

Thanks for clearing it up.

I agreed that reciprical trade is not a problem, as far as i understand.
It means that we buy things from a trade partner, and they buy things from us.
I think what i presumed was slightly different than the case.
You think we need to produce more stuff to trade with others?

No it means that if a foreign country establishes barriers such as tariffs against US imports we reciprocate.

I will admit that i do not know all the details of our trade policies and tarrifs with other countries;
not to mention what the offset of changing much of our economy from technology to manufacturing would be worth, with respect to tariffs.

Once again you don’t seem to understand even the most basic aspects of trade.