“If protectionism is so bad then why does every other country practice it?”
This argument is devoid of any sense or logic. Substitute “single payer healthcare” or “a 25 hour work week” for “protectionism”. See how stupid that sounds. Bad ideas are bad ideas and tariffs and protectionism are bad. I’ll put Hong Kong 1960’s up against France or England and their protectionism any day. Some of you need a real primer in economics, read Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith first and work your way up to Milton Friedman. I get some of you love Trump, but let’s not be lemmings or fanboys and park our common sense.
Adam Smith was a Utopian ass.
Tariffs in general are not a bad idea. I do think they make more sense when they are applied uniformly to every import from a given country. Tariffs that are targeted for specific products or (especially) raw materials just end up pitting one U.S. industry against another.