Are you better off now?

This is exactly what is wrong with this country. ME ME ME. The question should be is the country better off now than 3 years ago. My parents 45 years ago voted that way. I have a good friend that votes that way. Times are different. Is the steel and aluminium industry better now than 3 years ago? You mean that the tires you mentioned are made here and the country is stronger because of that? Yes things cost more and some of that is just supply and demand. Some is the cost of labor and transportation. You can't continue to give the our countries wealth away to other countries. I don't mind pay more for things if it makes this country stronger. I have a hate for the government wasting my money and giving it to the lazy and other countries.

The only problem with what you said is as followed
- it’s made her so we should pay a little more...
why should you pay more when it has less distance to go.
why should the workers get paid more college degree or not
remember back when man or woman didn’t need a college
degree to make a living for his family he or she need to just
know how to work. You almost have to have a degree to be
a cashier at Walmart?
- I rather pay them more than it come overseas...
what about the ones that’s hauling the stuff overseas now
they are out of work. Take food out of 100 peoples mouth
to feed one or break the food up and let everyone that can
work for it! But someone’s got to be better than someone
else in America right. So some one got to loose out right.

Ok, now let’s ask the question what is the difference between free enterprise and socialism, and what system protectionism is better aligned with?

Free enterprise is the ability to charge as much as the market will bear. If you provide quality you will be rewarded. If it's sub standard you probably won't last.
Case in point. At the beginning of the year a brokerage firm cut our rates by over $1.00 per mile. We lost a fair amount of work. However trucks showing up late to load, as much as 5 hours! Not having the proper equipment for load securment . Also late for delivery appointments, and arguing with the reciever / crane crews etc. When you have a 120 ton crane on the job site every minute counts.
We now have most of the work back at our previous rates!
Now the socialist government will set the rate for all! This removes the incentive to be better than the competition! Why be better we all make the same. This is why I cringe when someone thinks the government needs to cap what a brokerage can make. Do you want a cap on your rates?
You need to embrace competition, for it will make you a better business person. Or you can let it defeat you .That is your choice.
Protectionism is how the government can protect its nation's businesses from the global forces of other governments subsidized businesses. Lately that has been in the form of tariffs good or bad.
To be blunt if you aren't profitable why in the name of God do you keep doing the same things? I left the bulk industy simply for easier work. Where I was always trying to get every pound I could due to the tonnage rate. I now rarely have an outbound load that exceeds 14k lbs on the deck. I have had less than 800 lbs on some loads. These usually pay in the mid $4 range but I have seen as much as $6.50 for trips of over 1000 miles. I get better milage it is by far easier on my equipment. The downside I can't brag about how heavy my load is.
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Here are my quick thoughts. We are better off with more equally price good when you compare import to domestic. We as a country are out of control with costs of goods. When a diesel pickup is averaging 70k and insurance is through the roof and lawyers are suing for every fender bender, it has gotten out of control. When Washington is run by politicians that are controlled by lobbyists and most of the politicians are lawyers by profession, we have a problem.
In 1997, I bought my first Mack for local work and paid $12k plus 10k for an older trailer. I was paid $50/hr to work on a construction site and move material around. Burned almost no fuel and my driver charged me $12/hr when I deeded help. Fuel was around $$1.30/gal and my insurance was $1300 for the year.
Today a ten year old truck in good condition can easily cost $50k plus a trailer, diesel $3-4 per gal, insurance from $7000-$15000 per truck depending on what state you in and that same job pays around $80-90 per hour from what I have been told recently. Parts and repairs have more than tripled! Employment taxes and workers Comp have gotten crazy and no one with anything more than a tent to live in can afford to work for 10-12 an hour and be the primary provider for a household. So just use $18-$20 per hour for a local driver today. I look at these numbers and realize there is not much left over. Only the big players with multiple trucks and first tier on pay can make any real money! This is just my take on it! We who work seem to work harder, we work longer and we are constantly having to fight for our work because there is very little loyalty and a $1/hr can cost you your driver or an entire job if you are undercut by another company.

By taking a poll here we were able to get true results without any media bias, folks seem to be happy, regardless of what the media says. For over 40 years protectionism was a taboo subject with both political parties, any time organized labor tried to make it a campaign issue, Wall Street shut it down. Ronald Reagan was a very out spoken critic of it. If you go to YouTube and type in Ronald Reagan on protectionism, you will see a title come up called “ FREE TRADE AND THE SIREN SONG OF PROTECTIONISM “. As I listened an watched that short 5 minute speech today, it forced me to ask if we are moving in the same direction as Venezuela? Would Reagan call us socialists if he were here today?

The nine scariest words in the English lanuage, "I'm from the goverment and I'm here to help." Yes Reagan would think we've gotten to socialism. Really we have been for some time and I'm not sure we can work our way out of it. I avoid every aspect of it that I can but it's tough. It's sad that many may never know real freedom.

I will say in the free market there is no greater satisfaction than beating a cheater. Those getting hand outs etc. They don't operate efficiently and complain.