"What's good for General Motors, is good for America!"

[Jdanz]

i would find it an admirable idea, but in the end shortsighted.

Suppliers on the US side are going to charge as much as they can, if we were to impose a tariff on foriegn goods, suppliers would just be competing vs a lower price, and would raise their price accordingly. This would essentially be a government subsidy to corporations and wouldn't actually help the average worker. (not to mention that the average american consumer would pay a higher price).

As to the idea of paying a subsidy to american workers, where is this money coming from? if it comes from the tariff on a similar good imported from abroad we A) increase corporate profits B) increase the price to american citizens. Where is this money coming from?

Essential there are people in america willing to do a job for x dollars and people abroad willing to do the same job for <x dollars, so i don't see any way of keeping the job here.

Personally i don't think the jobs should be kept here, as i don't believe americans deserve jobs any more then Chinese do.

It's a hard idea to swallow, but Americans are, in general, overpaid for what they do as compared to the rest of the world. Regardless of american policy as borders become less and less important it seems impossible to artificially maintain the imbalance of wealth around the world. If people are willing to do a job for less somewhere else, it's going to be impossible to keep employers from taking advantage of that.

Addendum: this will, IMO, have all sorts of unforseen consequences, and while it will likely DECREASE the conentration of wealth in relation to countries, it will likely INCREASE the concentration of wealth in relation to individuals. In the end a more "efficent" market outcome, leading to large divisional issues.