Week 8 EWOT

Yesterday, while entertaining some seniors from my high school alma matter who were visiting campus, one of them told me about a poll they conducted in their AP Economics class concerning our relationship with China.  Out of the 85 students enrolled in the course, 47 had voted that the best action for America to take was to boycott Chinese goods.  Two of the seniors who were in the class had voted for it and I was astounded from their lack of logic concerning the situation.  According to Professor Rizzo’s lectures this week, the supposed “trade deficit” with China is actually helpful to America for a multitude of reasons.  These include the fact that we consume a large amount of Chinese goods and that China invests much of its trade surplus back into the American economy, helping to keep our FDI so high.  With this knowledge, I now know that the arguments given by those 47 students is essentially bogus, and I can give a better informed answer if ever I am asked about our trade relations with China.