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...slowing down the flow of jap bikes (750cc+) flowing into the US ...enabled Willie G Davidson the time and opportunity to buy back controlling shares of HD.

Still don't see how blocking jap bikes helped Davidson to buy back HD.

Look I'm glad for the legendary turnaround of HD with which you're apparently personally involved. But look at it another way. If HD had always been protected from the Japanese by tariffs, an inferior bike company would not have had the competitive environment needed to motivate this kind of turnaround. Again, the consumer won when free-market competition forced change.

So to go back to the original reference to Milton Friedman, fair markets create neither equality nor freedom, whereas free markets create a great deal of both. Also, free markets create wealth. One of the best, latest examples is Peru which moved from a closed market to an open, free-market economy a few decades ago. Whereas it used to be a fairly backward, poor country, Peru, in a relatively short amount of time, found itself with one of the best standards of living of any South American country.

By putting a tariff on large displacement jap bikes it slowed their sales, shifted a few consumers BACK towards buying HD...thus putting a bit more money into the AMF owned company. This (so it was explained to me) bought time for Willie G to scrounge up the funds needed to buy out a controlling interest in the company.

I have absolutely no personal stake in HD. I do not sell HD or any of their products.

"If HD had always been protected from the Japanese by tariffs, an inferior bike company would not have had the competitive environment needed to motivate this kind of turnaround. Again, the consumer won when free-market competition forced change."

There you go again...LOL

All or nothing, hugh?

Who says HD SHOULD have been permanently protected? Not me!

This is "free traders" biggest flaw...if it doesn't fit into their "all or nothing Friedman formula"...they sit around and scratch their heads...

I say take each case as it comes along. Things aren't always black and white... there's a hell of a lot of gray area in there too.

Hat's off to Peru! Fantastic, I'm glad to hear it... but I believe we (US) should use tariffs as a negotiating tool. if there is a case where a distinctly American Icon could be saved... why not?

A little bit of arm twisting never killed anyone. I'm not saying to blast a tariff on everything that comes ashore... that's just idiotic... but hey...
use 'em as leverage, everyone else does!

Let's flip the coin here... you believe there is no intrinsic value to keep a Motorola or a Texas Instrument type company in American hands?

Would you rather see the tens of thousands of workers across the world who produce HD products be unemployed, just to "prove a point" that tariffs suck and "free trade" reigns superior in ALL cases?

That to me FRiend, is a strange outlook. But to each his own, it's still a (relatively) free country.