“The political divide is no longer Left-Right.
Those are old-fashioned terms and they don’t especially mean anything. For example, George Will is right wing. Huh?
The real divide is Globalist-Nationalist.”
I agree with that.
And have been having some interesting conversations here on FR with “conservatives” who (presumably, unknowingly) support globalist free trade, while I argue for tariffs on imports; a more Nationalistic view but one self-describe “conservatives” have real issues with.
And have been having some interesting conversations here on FR with “conservatives” who (presumably, unknowingly) support globalist free trade, while I argue for tariffs on imports; a more Nationalistic view but one self-describe “conservatives” have real issues with.
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If I remember my economics major correctly—eight years back—it’s that total utility (or worth, or however you want to say it. The ‘official’ term is utility) is maximized when goods and services flow freely.
With one caveat, and that is, ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL.
The problem is that all these ‘trade’ agreements are anything but equal. The countries that we have these agreements with aren’t looking to maximize utility, and so they set their own tariffs and taxes, which ultimately makes the US worse off than if we had no trade agreement at all.
We can’t change what THEY do, but we can change what WE do. Putting up tariffs can snag some of that utility back from the nations taking advantage of us... and a willingness to fight back economically may well convince them to lower their own trade barriers, or at least not raise them too high.