BU204-01 Macroeconomics
Unit 2
Questions:
1. A representative of the American clothing industry recently made the following statement: “Workers in Asia often work in sweatshop conditions earning only pennies an hour. American workers are more productive and as a result earn higher wages. In order to preserve the dignity of the American workplace, the government should enact legislation banning imports of low-wage Asian clothing.” Answer the following: (10 points)
a. Which parts of this quote are positive statements? Which parts are normative statements?
b. Would such a policy make some Americans better off without making any other Americans worse off? Explain who and why.
c. Would low-wage Asian workers benefit from or be
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This kind of tax is called a tariff and is enacted to protect domestic producers of the same items that can be imported at much lower costs. Answer the following: (10 points)
a. What would shoppers see when they shopped in Wal-Mart and the other “big box” stores that sell so many imported items?
b. Would this tax policy have a better effect, worse effect, or no different effect on American workers than the legislation banning the imports discussed in question 1? What kind of effect would the tax have on the Asian workers?
2a. Consumers would certainly see a hike in prices on the imported product and in turn could affect the consumer’s ability to afford neither the domestic made clothing nor foreign made clothing.
2b. The tax policy could have a better effect on the American worker by keeping the products that are being made competitive with the foreign products. If there is a higher tax on the foreign product then some consumers may opt to purchase American made products if the price is comparable. The tariff could impact the Asian worker negatively. It could reduce the amount of jobs in that particular product.
3. A growing economy means that the economy is producing more and more “stuff”, either because it has more resources (workers), or uses those resources more productively (smarter, better workers, working with better machines and systems). A growing economy that produces more and
There are seven areas of development in the EYFS. The seven areas of development and are split up as three main areas and are physical development, personal, social and emotional development, communication and language. The other four are still important but not detrimental as the other areas and they are Understanding of the World, Literacy, Arts and Design and Maths.
Tariffs exist in many different forms, and have various uses dependent on the economic situation and outlook. They can be specific such as a set tax per item, or ad valoreum, with a percentage tax per unit. (McEachern, 2015, p. 282) This paper will discuss function of each and the positive and negative effects of the use of these various tools.
From an economic perspective, the impact of the immigration policy could be effectively analyzed through a Cost Benefit Analysis. With the cost of the policy being rather
Although the Chinese apparel manufacturers would lose profitability due to rising cotton prices and competition from emerging countries, they stand to gain the most from the removal of U.S. quotas and tariffs. According to the author, in 2007, 95% of the 20 billion garments Americans made were purchased overseas. Due to U.S. trade barriers, China’s share of the U.S. apparel import was only 30%. Once these barriers were removed, Chinese apparel would flood the American market due to their low cost and dominance in garment manufacturing. Experts predict that China could eventually supply 85% of U.S. apparel. As they increase their market share in the
A significant byproduct of the industrial revolution is the development of sweatshops, which has become a problematic issue within society. Most sweatshops serve the purpose of manufacturing clothes for cheap in order for corporations to make a profit. Corporations thrive using this money-making scheme at the cost of the lives of many sweatshop workers, who barely makes enough money to support their families, let alone themselves. Corporations who outsource to developing countries to manufacture goods in sweatshops are overlooked by the host country’s government, in fear of losing the economic benefits these corporations bring with them. The United States government can stop the use of sweatshops by implementing legislation that restricts
In the article, “Donald Trump’s trade team has based their analysis on a remarkably silly mistake”, the author Matthew Yglesias criticizes the arguments from the National Trade Council about how to solve the current U.S. trade deficit. The National Trade Council led by Donald Trump states that reducing imports and increasing exports could shrink the trade deficit and boost the economy, while Yglesias shots back that once the policy has made, it would cause the economy slump instead of booming. According to the AS-AD framework and some basic economic knowledge, it is worth to acknowledging that Trump-imposed taxes would not work as well as the estimation since
Whenever a foreign item is bought, an American loses his job. As more people migrate to America, they start their own businesses. These businesses may produce the same products made in America. To prevent Americans from losing their jobs, tax will be given to the new companies. Even though prices may be even or not, it is most likely that now, since the foreign products’ price has went up, the original American product will get the most sales since it is better known. “Tariffs increase the prices of imported goods. Because of this, domestic producers are not forced to reduce their prices from increased competition, and domestic consumers are left paying higher prices as a result. Tariffs also reduce efficiencies by allowing companies that would
Leading up to the increase on tax of imported goods is something that Trump is wanting to do and even visited Snap-on Tools to reinforce what he calls, “buy American, hire American.” As he signed the executive order at the Snap-on company, he gave a speech of how Americans have built great things including the Panama Canal. The bad part of only buying American product is that the relationship with other may be destroyed and could increase our imports in other countries. Only hiring American does not always work because not all Americans wants to do the hard work of an
What is a progressive tax system? How does it differ from a regressive tax system?
What do the people who work in the factories want? They want to have their jobs protected, like many working people do. Trump promised to help those workers. He promised to protect their jobs. That is why he is proposing the tariffs. Yet, the tariffs are not actually beneficial for the workers. By strongly encouraging Americans to use domestic steel and aluminum, the prices are being raised on these products. All the products that have these two products as inputs are also having increased prices. Why were factories buying these goods across the sea? China produces steel and aluminum at a lower marginal cost, allowing them to sell the goods at a lower price and still maximize profit. Therefore, China is the most efficient producer of these products. Instead of trying to inhibit efficiency, Trump should be promoting efficiency. He could do so by encouraging the steel and aluminum factories to discover new ways to produce their goods with a lower marginal cost. Also, maybe American factories could specialize in another industry if China is the lowest cost producer of steel and aluminum. But, these proposals are not being encouraged by Trump and his
Throughout history, the United States’ trading policies have shifted from early protectionism intended to generate revenue and support domestic industry growth to a high degree of free trade within the international trade market (Carbaugh, 2015). In between, policy changes designed to increase and decrease tariffs were enacted due to pressure from politicians, economists, industries, citizens and other countries. Yet, emphasized in the ensuing paragraphs, America’s continuous efforts to maintain a sufficient amount of trade tariffs has continuously led to fluctuations in the domestic economy. Along with the country’s practice of protectionism, the policies that influenced the major changes in tariff rates include the
The duties it imposes are a substantial impediment to trade in the goods at issue, imposing net costs on the U.S. economy as a whole. U.S. trade policy is
product, the effect is, like a tariff, to raise the price of the import and make
However, cheaper goods are not the only advantage of free trade. Trade involves exports too, and as 95% of the consumers in the world are outside of the U.S., free trade opens a portal for the U.S. producers to sell their goods to a larger pool of consumers who potentially value the goods more than the U.S. consumers.5 According to Daniella Markheim and Anthony Kim of The Heritage Institute, without free trade, the U.S. manufacturers would be limited to selling to a lower number of consumers inside the U.S. and this would mean less firms producing, fewer jobs, and even lower wages. They say “Today, the $12 trillion U.S. economy is bolstered by free trade, a pillar of America 's vitality. American exports support one in five U.S. manufacturing jobs. Jobs directly linked to the export of goods pay 13 to 18 percent more than other U.S. jobs.”6 Further, United States Trade Representative estimates that the U.S. exports supported 11.3 million jobs in 2013. This clearly demonstrates how exports through free trade is beneficial to the U.S. economy.
Our need for cheap clothing in the US has been the drive for sweatshops overseas. John Quelch wrote of the incident that happened on April 24, 2013. The Rana Plaza factory building was in such a poor state that it collapsed with workers in side. He states in his article Rana Plaza: Bangladesh Garment Tragedy, “Low cost production and large capacity were key incentives for multinational corporations (MNCs) to produce garments in Bangladesh” (Quelch 2). Because labor there was so cheap it was easy to make cheap clothing. He also stated that about “90% of garments produced in Bangladesh were exported to the United States, Europe and Canada” (Quelch p2). This sweatshop was producing clothing that was cheap for the US. The more we crave disposable