I understand your point, even though I don’t necessarily agree with all your conclusions.
The US has fewer than half as many paychecks as people.
Likely true. My family (of two currently) only has 1 paycheck so we are only 50%. When my kids were home we still had 50%. My Mom doesn’t get a paycheck so in her family of 1 she is 0%. I know a number of families of 5 who only have 1 paycheck so they are at 20%. So, while it is true it doesn’t necessarily mean much.
Over half of those paychecks pay under $14/hr or so. So only about a quarter or a fifth of the people can afford basic necessities without subsidy.
Also likely true. However, I live next to a large metro region that has made $15/hr the minimum wage and in a state that has increased its minimum wage to $11/hr in 2017, $11.50/hr this year, $12/hr in 2019, and $13.50/hr in 2020. After that the minimum wage is indexed to inflation. We fired one employee in 2017 because he wasn’t worth $11/hr. In the two counties that I employ folks the unemployment rate is 4.4% and 4.8%. I have a really hard time finding anyone worth paying $11.50/hr. I only employ a dozen people. My point is that in my sample of one, increasing the minimum wage too much is costing jobs.
As for subsidy, I don’t know. A lot of folk’s get subsidies. I get a very large government subsidy through the mortgage interest deduction. I know it is silly but I still happily take that subsidy on my federal taxes each year.
This year I am getting a $15k subsidy due to the GOPs tax plan as a pass-through entity. Yeah, it is silly but I will happily take that subsidy on my taxes as well.
Every time I fill up my boat or car I am taking advantage of subsidized fuel prices as the taxes paid on the fuel don’t come close to the cost of providing the road infrastructure necessary to support the burning of that fuel.
Of course we don’t even need to mention the subsidies on certain agricultural products such as milk and corn.
So when you mention subsidies, which subsidies are you talking about? SSI and Medicare? Medicaid? Welfare? Parental leave? Or is the minimum wage itself an income redistribution subsidy?
Of that quarter, many are government jobs which are not open to large segments of the population.
Not sure I understand this. I agree that public sector employment makes up a huge share of the labor force. While it is true that many military jobs have pretty strict age, sex, and physical requirements, there are only about 1.4 million total in the US military and a portion of those jobs are limited by sex. Total there are about 23 million public sector jobs in the US with only a tiny fraction of those limited based on age, sex, or physical ability. Seem to me that the government jobs are open to to most folks in the US.
Globalists use the word "competition" as code for slave labor.
Not sure which definition of “globalist” you are using. If you mean “A national geopolitical policy in which the entire world is regarded as the appropriate sphere for a state's influence” then I think that when they say “competition” they actually mean competition. If, OTOH, you are using one of the many Trumpian and conspiracy theorist definitions of globalism, then it is all fiction anyway.
Metal produced with slave labor and no environmental protection is "dumped" at under production costs on the US market through intermediaries in our bordering countries like Mexico and Canada.
I’ve mentioned before that the vaulted Canadian decency and politeness is really just a sinister plot and part of their ongoing attempt to destroy the US. That is why the president considers Canada a threat to US national security. Likely a joint plot on the part of Canada and Mexico. Canada is destroying our ability to make war by selling us steel and aluminum and Mexico is doing it by sending us murderer and rapists.
Seriously, I think that trade agreements should take into consideration basic human rights to avoid true slave labor.
"Free Trade" is also code. There is nothing free about it.
I guess I can’t decode the code. I think of free trade as being international trade that is market run without the interference of tariffs, quotas, or other artificial restrictions. I guess I think of it more along the lines of Burke than Smith.
Anyway, none of this relates to my original question of the effects of the new tariffs on the PNW boater building industry.