That comment shows lack of big-picture thinking.
Through the effective use of tariff, based on our social values and "fair" competition, we can have SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER average wages and standard of living then the rest of the world.
Assign a tariff to every component...an off-shore VAT...which is manufactured overseas. The same would apply to raw commodities.
Hell, we should have a $50/bbl tariff on imported oil NOW while the price is low. Use the revenue to off-set the taxes on companies that produce domestically.
Shoes, shirts, washing machines, TVs, lumber, paper, you name it. All protected by an annually-adjusted tariff based on the values of American society...purely subjective reasoning.
When we didn't like France at the beginning of Gulf War II, tariff everything from France at 150%. Now that they're being nicer, tariff's reduced to 10%.
The US is AFRAID to use their commercial power. We have over 1/2 of the world's REAL capital...and we're afraid to use it because somebody might use open-source vs Microsoft...AirBus vs Boeing.
Let 'em. They'll always know they risk our wrath...and the wrath of 1/2 the world's capital (and consumption)can be very unpleasant.
Are you "series" ?
Lot of tariffs will raise the prices of all goods. So, higher wages and higher prices would at best be a wash, all other things being equal. A second effect would be retaliatory tariffs from countries we trade with, so a new equilibrium would be reached with lower trade and governments skimming more. A third effect would be economic distortions as political clout rather than market efficiency determined which industry got the most protection.
I think these effects would lead to a lower standard of living, not to an improvement for American workers vis a vis the rest of the world.
This is not to say that we shouldn't level the field with countries that levy discriminatory tariffs against our products; I'm just saying that a general high-tariff approach would not be a golden path to a better standard of living.