> “But tariffs are a bad idea. Among other things, protectionism in the past gave us fatty, uncompetitive industries like our auto and steel industries in the ‘70s.”
That was the 1970s when America had led in the previous three decades the post-WWII reconstruction and recovery throughout the world. American companies controlled world markets and American labor got used to it.
What you’re missing is that the pendulum not only swings but changes its angle of swing.
Since Reagan, who did the right thing to bust up protectionist rackets, the pendulum has swung so far away from American workers that it natural and unsurprising that it is now swinging back as it must.
But the difference is that now the world is not recovering from the devastation of a world war, so there is no prosepct that Amerifan companies will rule the globe as they did in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to inefficient noncompetitive labor and management. That situation is not going to happen as severely this time around.
Understand that balance is needed and that is why Donald Trump is President.
Swinging it back stupidly is, well, stupid.
Yes, we need to even things up, but tariffs are a terrible idea. They will reduce our exports, because they will invite counter-tariffs, and that will reduce our wealth—including our workers’ wealth.
And it wasn’t leading the world that led the US to be uncompetitive. It was protectionism that let unions gain power to the degree that they killed their flock of golden geese. Our big global advantage now is tech—and we don’t need to go killing our global export markets for that.