The Downward Sprial of the United States Economy Essay...

The Downward Spiral of the United States Economy In the world to date, there seems to be an increase of world governments needing bailouts, and people of the world needing assistance from the United States. This idea has caused many Americans to come to the conclusion that if the United States closed off borders to foreign trade, it would increase it’s standard of living and make America more profitable. However, this idea is false. The United States must not close off it’s borders to foreign trade because if trade borders were to close, American manufacturing plants would begin to shut down, the American transportation system and public services would suffer resulting in American job loss. If the US closes off borders to foreign trade,†¦show more content†¦The US transportation industry would suffer economic hardships jobs would be lost and transportation companies would shut down due to lack of business. The United States imports sixty percent of all oil used from foreign nations (Lugar). If foreign oil was not imported, an immediate price rise would be in effect on the oil that is gathered and stored internally. Because it can take five to ten years to start up an oil processing plant, the oil reserves in the US would be depleted. The price for a gallon of gasoline would double, seriously affecting transportation: â€Å"Saudi Arabia has the largest [oil] reserve capacity followed by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates† (Lugar). If the US closed off borders to foreign imported oil, then not only would the American transportation system would disappear but thousands of American jobs would be lost. Diesel is used in the transportation of good s in America in both semi-trucks and modern trains. Not only is diesel and gas used in the transportation of goods but also in the creation of them. If the US stopped importing foreign oil, and the prices on both gasoline and diesel rose exorbitantly: so too would the cost of the products they carried and helped to create. Transporting goods state to state would become costly and eventually, would stop altogether. Closing American borders to foreign oil will cause problems for to the transportation industry as well as