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No, Karen
When the seatbelt law was passed in the mid-’80s, my police sergeant told us to go out and cite as many people as we could for that violation. I immediately stopped a woman for not wearing a seatbelt. I never issued another seatbelt ticket in my career, and, if I could, I would find that driver and apologize.
Every Friday night, an anonymous noise complaint would come in about a jazz club near a major thoroughfare in my beat. I would stand outside the business; the sound from inside was less than the ambient street noise. I never talked to the manager, and made a notation “no crime observed” on the incident remarks. After a couple of weeks of this, I informed the dispatcher I would not respond unless there was an actual complainant. I never got dispatched there again.
There was a park near a large hospital where taxi drivers would gather waiting to pick up the fares, usually Medicare patients, that they had dropped off for appointments. I got an anonymous dispatch to a disturbance involving the drivers. I drove by and saw that they were just standing outside their cars smoking and talking. I made a notation “no crime observed” on the incident remarks and went back in service. After three days of this, I informed the dispatcher I would not respond unless there was an actual complainant. I never got dispatched there again.
This week, the mayor of Austin, TX, ordered that everyone wear a mask in public. He also recommended that the general public report anyone not following his diktat.
I haven’t been a cop for 16 years, but there are three things I know I wouldn’t do if I were. I wouldn’t cite someone for listening to a service in their car in a church parking lot. I wouldn’t tell a husband and wife not to sit together on a park bench. And I wouldn’t respond to a complaint from a junior Stasi about someone not following the rules set down by a pétit fascist.
Published in Policing
Tariffs.
Then nothing. Unless, as Skyler says in #30, you have a leader that you think can and will, by force of government, stop me from buying cheap plastic crap from China. And if you do, and if you support that, then yeah: “AUTHORITARIAN!”
Fair enough. Of course I don’t mean by executive fiat. I mean by using the process. Don’t tell me I can’t buy Chinese crap. Create a business environment that makes the crap they produce in Milwaukee more affordable to me. There’s a lot Government can do in the current regulatory environment. Or should I say: undo.
It’s a problem.
First, it’s properly the role of Congress, not the president.
Second, there is no good way to overcome market forces. I suspect the best we can do is require manufacturers to make a large percent in this country and make that percent considerably less taxed.
These are my opinions about what @kedavis wrote. These are all points that apply “all else equal”. I don’t consider non-economic factors like geo-politics and the military threat of the Chinese Communists; these are of critical importance and greater urgency, but they are out of my area of expertise.
He began with what appears to be a valid moral argument for boycotting Chinese companies
It’s a strong argument for anyone with a conscience. If an American citizen thinks that boycotting a company might help the people being persecuted, and there is a practical way to do it, then he should boycott. I don’t accept that the moral argument gives government the right to intervene in markets, by imposing a boycott or other coercive interference.
Then he gives a values-free economic argument. It is logically independent of the above moral argument.
Here I think things are more complex than they seem. All else equal, whenever a new foreign competitor arises and wins business from a now-uncompetitive domestic firm,
I thought we were talking about “leaders”? The president certainly is one, but then so are our members of Congress. They can and should work together to reduce the regulatory environment to make doing business in the United States less costly.
As to your second point: define “make”. My company “makes” power supplies for the telecom industry. A bunch of the components come from overseas. Some of the assembly is done overseas. Some of the assembly is done in the US and some in Canada. Most of the programming (meaning, loading up the firmware to the power supply) is done in the US, but some is done overseas. ALL of the firmware development is done in the US. The power supply is comprised of sheet metal, printed circuit boards, rectifiers and inverters, batteries, sheet metal and firmware. In some cases those power supplies are sold with enclosures. In some cases they are sold with natural gas generators. What part of all that do you suppose should comprise this “large percent” and how do you propose to regulate that?
I’ve worked in manufacturing now for 25 years, and I can tell you, this “made in America” nonsense is just that. It should be made where it can be made to produce the best value for the customer.
Someone wise once said that people who can’t control their emotions are left try and control the actions of others.
This pandemic feeds directly in to that scenario “someone not obeying the rules might kill me” – fear. Karens of the world rejoice, their day has come.