Lets keep this short and painful.

Romney

“China has been artificially reducing the price of its currency and I will place tariffs on them”

Reality Check: That means that both US consumers and US businesses get to buy Chinese products for cheap, thus our money goes farther and our businesses can do more. 

Consequences of his brilliant idea: If we did this, Everything in America would be more expensive. Our businesses would have to pay more for anything they buy (laptops, printers, furniture), and most likely instead of local businesses forming to try to be competitive (unlikely and time consuming)… We’d likely have European countries or someone else just have China build them products and sell those to us so that the Europeans could make an extra buck for providing Chinese services to us indirectly. Are you going to put tariffs on England and France too?

Then, we have the problem that right now China and the US need each other and will help each other to some degree. Start an adversarial situation and China has to think about defending itself against us. Maybe offering services to other countries even cheaper so that they can move ahead faster than us. Maybe just by making some things more expensive for us that we don’t want to have be expensive – and seriously if prices are going to rise, China would no doubt prefer to sell at higher prices than let the US gov collect more taxes. Feh.

… And this bungling idiot considers himself a businessman. Where do they get these morons?

Ultimately China and their cheap labor is something we could use to save ourselves.

And here’s an example:

Now we know that people can have more money in two ways: “Make more money, or spend less” – one way you spend less is if stuff is cheaper so that you get as much for less.

So, what if we negotiate with China to help us produce vast numbers of trucks with hybrid engines so that they cost less fuel, and we negotiate down on the price so that its even cheaper than it would be otherwise? What would that do? Practically everything in the US could be a little cheaper because moving goods across the country costs money. We’d spend less to move stuff, so everyone could afford to sell it for a little cheaper… China makes money, and our lives become easier.

The point is simply to say that if we are creative, that cheap labor can be an advantage for us. A waiter in the US and a waiter in China may do the same work, but because our currency is valued higher, the waiter here can buy cooler stuff and overall has a better life. Businesses have similar advantages if they use their heads. If China artificially makes their stuff and services cheap so we can take advantage of them, lets take more advantage of them.