14 Conversation Starters for America's Latest Trade War
I have grown bored by what I'm seeing online. Let's change the conversation.
Today’s polarized discourse has really ruined my favorite hobby: Starting interesting conversations that are only tangential to current events. This habit is useless now, unless I meet a weirdo like me, because once I know how you voted in the last election, I can often predict the way that you want to talk about tariffs, free trade, manufacturing and America’s role in the world. This conversation would all be downstream of the media sources you consume, the perspectives you’ve chosen to avoid, and the talking points your side wants to get out. The problem is, I can read all of that in the news, so why go there?
Since I have limited access to weirdos in my personal life, I figured Substack is the best place to archive these conversation starters. Let me know if these topics interest you. Maybe we can chat in the comments, or I can flesh out one of these in a full essay? As always, thanks for reading!
America as a Service/Knowledge Economy: I am a winner in the transition of America towards a technology & services economy, but that’s not the case for everyone. Are we sure the balance is in a good place to benefit all Americans?
Hearts and Minds: How can politicians generally convince average, working class Americans that 40 years of free trade was good for them? So far, they’re failing.
Global Shipping and Climate Change: Are we sure that reliance on global trade is a good move for the climate? Are there environmental efficiencies to be gained by producing domestic goods rather than importing them from the other side of the globe?
Underconsumption, Cottagecore and How Young People Have Grown Used to Scarcity: With most young people struggling to afford assets, we’ve seen natural trends away from consumption. Are younger generations more prepared for an economic tidal change than most would expect?
Cheap New Goods vs. Vintage Old Goods: Why is it that the vintage movement in America is surging while cheap goods from China flood our shores? What does it say about our attachments to items of quality and the way things used to be?
America’s Software Exports: Is software the safest industry in a trade war, and isn’t America best positioned to benefit from that?
Working Class Power: Union membership is down, and we are more sensitive to manufacturing delays in other country than our own. Has the offshoring of manufacturing reduced elite reliance on working class issues? Would a return to domestic production help revitalize a labor movement in need of a spark?
The Post WW2 Order: Was the manufacturing prosperity in America just an outlier caused by most of the world being forced to rely on us to rebuild? Are we hopelessly chasing something unrealistic by harkening back to those economic times?
Skepticism of the Stock Market’s Recent Success: For the last few years, the majority of the stock market has been based on big tech companies. Is the current market volatility part of a much-needed repricing due to the relative weakness of non-tech companies?
Isolationist Economies and War: Was incentivized global trade the pin holding back geopolitical conflict? Are we heading toward a more violent world by reducing interdependency?
Modern Factories: While nobody can dispute China’s dominance in human-oriented factories, the game is wide open when it comes to robot-oriented factories. Isn’t it better for humans and better for the world if we’re transitioning these jobs away from humans as much as possible? Isn’t America better positioned to lead on this based on the technology required and our manpower limitations?
Consumerism in China: China is currently dependent on American consumers. No other nation in the world imports as much, but perhaps that could change. What would China look like if it began to encourage more domestic consumption to fill the gaps from a trade war?
Political Realignment: This tweet highlighted how leftists in the 90s would be more likely to cheer on the destruction of the exploitative, global trade system that destroyed unions and hurt the poor. Is today’s political switch really just about Trump or have loyalties shifted underneath the surface?
Free Trade for Thee, but Not for Me: The US should definitely take the loss for promoting free trade before these tariffs, but what about the anti-competitive laws in other nations that are designed to protect their own industries at the expense of the US?