Posted on 03/19/2018 12:50:03 PM PDT by Thalean
Shapiro claims that I favor “total state control of the economy” because I think it is possible to “simply pick the best industries and subsidize them.” Apparently, tariffs are Communism, and I am Stalin. . . Shapiro has it entirely backward: tariffs are the form of taxation most consistent with small government. . .
tariffs are antithetical to big government because they preclude socialism. How? Tariffs make imports expensive. This encourages domestic production and discourages offshoring—thereby boosting demand for American labor. Basically, tariffs create stable jobs and increase wages for American workers...
The key to solving this puzzle is recognizing that employed Americans are less likely to elect socialist governments because they will not benefit from the policies. The converse is likewise true.
Consider what happened in America’s Rustbelt. The region used to be a Republican stronghold. However, when millions of people began losing their jobs because of offshoring—caused by asymmetrical trade—the region turned blue. People voted for socialism to insulate themselves from the ravages of economic globalization. Socialism was a direct, and sadly iatrogenic response to free trade. It did more harm than good: Democratic governments raised taxes and imposed regulations that further crippled American industry. They made a bad problem worse.
Shapiro must answer this question: Were the alleged gains from freer trade with Communist China worth the proliferation of socialism in America? Was saving a few dollars on your $1,000 computer worth decades of Democratic governments, which damaged the U.S. economy with higher taxes and more regulations? I doubt it. We cannot limit our discussion of tariffs to their economic consequences—political reality forces Shapiro to choose: tariffs or socialism? What kind of “big government” does he want?
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
The case-in-point is China: we let China sell stuff in America, but we can't sell stuff there. This basically guarantees that Chinese companies will be more profitable than American ones, and can therefore lower their prices to out-compete our boys.
This is because manufacturing is subject to "increasing returns", meaning that the bigger it gets, the cheaper each product gets. This is why Trump's right on tariffs in general. Economics is one thing, business & politics are different animals.
Ben is smarter than me. I like him a little bit, but sometimes he is just plain wrong and he needs a humblin’.
Come on Ben, grow up.
If there was a link to the Ben Shapiro article to which this article is a response, I could decide for myself what I think about Ben’s arguments.
I’m with Trump on tariffs.
“Basically, tariffs create stable jobs and increase wages for American workers...”
That’s why tariffs are the bane of global socialism: it PREVENTS The Race to The Bottom.
Karl Marx was very much in favor of Free Trade.
Ben is wrong in this. The founders utterly disagreed with his take.
We have thousands of tariffs already in place on many different products. A few more are needed, and getting screwed by other countries on trade has to end now.
I have to laugh how “staunch Constitutional Conservatives” are busy defending a managed trade system created by UK Socialists, Stalinist Communist sympathizers and US “New Dealers”
These dogmas about “Free Trade” have no base in current economic reality.
We do not have “Free Trade, we have “Managed Trade” and since the 1940s it has been purposely managed to the US’s detriment.
In 1944 at Breeton Woods the US, Britain 42 other allied nations had a conference to set up a post WW2 international financial and trade system. The Conference, run by British and US socialists, communist sympathizes and “New Dealers”, crafted a new financial/trade system for the post war world. One of their theories was the war was caused by wild swings in trade and international finance.They crafted a system that was designed to smooth out those swings and promote global stability.
The theory was, that the US Economy was so big, diverse and strong, it could adsorb other countries finical/unemployment woes thus help prompt peace and stability.This expanded during the Cold War as the US used it economic muscle to counter the expansion of communist influence around the world.
What Trump is doing is challenging the assumptions and theories of the “Managed Trade” Globalists. Rather then cling to a 70 years old theory, maybe we need to realize that both World War 2 and Cold War are long over and we need a new trade system.
One World
One People
Open Borders
Free Trade
Karl Marx
There’s a link to Shapiro’s article, and the original article in the 1st paragraph of this article. There’s also a link to the episode of his show where he addresses Morrison’s article.
Yup. He wrote about it explicitly. Not sure why “republicans” believe in the fiction of free trade.
Wealth is like water, it flows downwards until all levels are equal. If you have the high ground, you must build a dam or risk being left high-and-dry.
James Madison on tariffs and the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations =>
“The power has been understood and used by all commercial & manufacturing Nations as embracing the object of encouraging manufactures. It is believed that not a single exception can be named.”
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_3_commerces18.html
I guess I just can’t see it.
~Adam Smith
Yes, Ben Shapiro is Still Wrong on Tariffs. Here’s Why
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3640894/posts
Tariffs are a tax. No one has explained to me why tariffs are worse than the income tax. I say let foreigners pay for the privilege of our markets and infrastructure. Then, let’s zero the income tax and return to constitutional money. The boom in small business will once again provide the commercial lifeblood of the Republic. The added benefit will be that corporate America, which seems to support the destruction of our culture, will lose power and influence.
No one is saying that there should be no foreign trade. The current system is not working, though. Free trade as it is currently structured is simply a way to transfer wealth from the middle class to the top 0.1%. Alleged “free marketers” who think that managed trade and the welfare-warfare state are preferable to true Christian free enterprise and limited government, need to have their heads examined.
Who really cares what Shapiro thinks? He’s a freakin’ blogger.
Free Traitors™ lack any common sense and will take the country down. The have almost done so.
You not just with Trump on tariffs, you are with George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Pretty good company.
I often hear free trade zealots make the “tariffs are socialism” argument - the trouble is that it isn’t an argument, it’s just empty rhetoric and name-calling. Equating the use of import duties with socialism suggests that the free traders have no idea of what the word “socialism” means. Certainly no reasonable person would suggest that the United States of the 19th century (when tariffs were high and the principal or sole source of Federal revenue) was “socialist.”
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