US soybean farmers hurting after China cancels contracts

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Did I say the oligopolies are Chinese? No I did not.

Big retailers have an enormous amount of power. They decide what products they want to sell from which manufacturers, and the decisions are based on cost in a number of ways, and they’re not all wholesale price costs. There’s “upstreaming” costs, “buybacks”, market access in the home country, and all sorts of things.

Foreign manufacturers, particularly Chinese, have a lot of advantage in dealing with a Walmart. They can beat American manufacturers in price and ability to eat costs because of their low labor costs.

That’s not a “free market”. That’s oligopoly. It doesn’t “force American companies to be competitive” It forces them to move out of the country. If that’s your vision of healthy competition, nobody in this country needs it.

Waiting for your evidence that 75% of our imported manufactured good come from countries other than CHina.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Trade that’s totally controlled by outfits like Walmart, China and those who are beholding to Walmart and China is not “free trade”. It’s “captive trade”.
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Except that Walmart and China do not control the trade. Anyone can do it and compete with Walmart if they want to.
 
LeafByNiggle said:
Anyone can do it and compete with Walmart if they want to.
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Amazon obviously can, but Amazon is a fairly new entrant and might be more abusive than Walmart eventually.

Many a main street testifies with its empty storefronts than very few can complete with Walmart.
 
Ridgerunner said:
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LeafByNiggle:
Anyone can do it and compete with Walmart if they want to.
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Amazon obviously can, but Amazon is a fairly new entrant and might be more abusive than Walmart eventually.

Many a main street testifies with its empty storefronts than very few can complete with Walmart.
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That’s because Walmart found ways to be more efficient in their supply chain. Isn’t that what the free market is supposed to do? Reward those who can supply the best deal to the consumers?
 
LeafByNiggle said:
That’s because Walmart found ways to be more efficient in their supply chain
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They are efficient. But some of it’s abusive, like “upstreaming” costs through “just in time” delivery directly to stores, of products that require an inventory. In those cases, the manufacturer has to bear inventory costs and risks. And as a supplier to Walmart, you don’t dare “run out” of a product. That puts a premium on low-cost manufacture because a maker can have a perfectly profitable product but still lose its shirt because of Walmart practices. Again, that gives an advantage to foreign producers who pay starvation wages or none at all.

The “free market” is a long way from being everything it’s cracked up to be.
 
Amazon is about as close to your idea of a free market as we will get. Until Amazon itself faces a competitor.
 
Ridgerunner said:
For four products made in a way most tools are not made, and which very few people use.

You surely aren’t pretending this proves that 75% of all imported manufactured goods come from other than China.
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What percentage of imported goods do you think come from China?
 
Seriously, someone is uninformed about US farming practices.

I just purchased grapes from California, peaches from Illinois,

Michigan has an enormous cherry industry. Apples and potatoes are grown all over the US. Cranberries are grown in Maine, Wisconsin and other NE states

As far as the soybeans, that the farmers are fretting over. Perhaps the US govt could pay the farmers for the soybeans and then ship them to countries to whom we already provide $$ aid that know what to do with them, can distribute them properly, etc. It can’t be like Nestle in the '80’s sending packets of powdered milk, with no potable water to Africa.
 
Ridgerunner said:
There are plenty of sites with stats as to various things.
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Here is a nice one.


You will note:
Code 82
Tools, implements, cutlery, and flatware of base metal
The US imported $3.7 billion worth of Chinese goods from this product group in 2017 and assessed an ad valorem duty of 4.55%. Of all the goods in this product group, the US imported 37.55% (by value) from China.
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On you example of a crescent wrench.
Code 820412
Tools, implements, cutlery, and flatware of base
Hand-operated spanners and wrenches (including torque meter
Hand-operated spanners and wrenches, and parts thereof
Adjustable, and parts thereof

The US imported $70.02 million worth of Chinese goods from this product group in 2017 and assessed an ad valorem duty of 8.98%. Of all the goods in this product group, the US imported 66.37% (by value) from China.
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In the winter, of course, you’ll buy a lot of fresh produce from Mexico and Chile. I really don’t have a problem with that, except that sometimes they’re not very good to eat. Guess I’m old fashioned. I would rather eat a good grape jelly in January than sour grapes from Chile or a rock-hard strawberry from wherever those come from.

I think we’ll eventually realize the current soybean prices are due to people shorting the market due to the “China scare”. But I don’t think the real dealers believe in it. They’re just taking advantage of the scare.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Does anyone even know how to find an American-made crescent wrench if they exist?
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Proto tools are US made.

Here

But you’re right. US-made hand tools are hard to find. Even Snap-On has offshored much of their manufacturing. Craftsman went overseas long ago.
 
Ridgerunner said:
In the winter, of course, you’ll buy a lot of fresh produce from Mexico and Chile. I really don’t have a problem with that, except that sometimes they’re not very good to eat. Guess I’m old fashioned. I would rather eat a good grape jelly in January than sour grapes from Chile or a rock-hard strawberry from wherever those come from.
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I’m a buy fresh in season fruit/veggie shopper whenever possible. I’ve been missing green grapes until just this week when I noticed they were from California. It’s hard to remember when the seasons are for most fruits though because we have year-round access (even though the quality/taste is not great, so I usually have to remind myself that strawberries are great in June/July, tomatoes in August, etc. I’m in Missouri for what it’s worth…
 
Now isn’t that a prime example of socialism. The government interferes in the market to harm some groups in society, then to mitigate the damage they have done, they then offer corporate welfare. No wonder the growth rate of government is always positive.
 
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