Posted on 07/27/2018 12:40:48 PM PDT by xzins
From the article:
“In 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote in his famous Report on Manufactures: “The wealth…independence, and security of a Country, appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures. Every nation…ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply. These compromise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defence.”
I’m skeptical that tariffs made America great, and Hamilton was a big-gov’t liberal.
What really made America great was that we had a massive untapped frontier to grow into ... and the ingenuity to tap it productively.
I agree.
Taxes make America Great?
High import tariffs worked well for America for it’s first 180 years. It was a mistake to abandon them.
Low tariffs with trading partners that are equal in wages and social structure like Europe can make both countries marginally wealthier but the downside is they become economically entangled and dependent on each other. Washington warned us about unneccessary foreign entanglements.
Low tariffs with third world countries that have lots of unemployment, simply offshores our industries and jobs to those third world countries. Resulting in higher unemployment here, the loss of industries and associated jobs, and again results in unnecessary entanglement. It lowers prices to consumers but it results in unemployed Americans so it has multiple negative effects.
High import tariffs worked well for America for it’s first 180 years. It was a mistake to abandon them.
Low tariffs with trading partners that are equal in wages and social structure like Europe can make both countries marginally wealthier but the downside is they become economically entangled and dependent on each other. Washington warned us about unneccessary foreign entanglements.
Low tariffs with third world countries that have lots of unemployment, simply offshores our industries and jobs to those third world countries. Resulting in higher unemployment here, the loss of industries and associated jobs, and again results in unnecessary entanglement. It lowers prices to consumers but it results in unemployed Americans so it has multiple negative effects.
If someone wants cheap imports then they need to be forced to be fired from their job since they demand other Americans get fired from theirs.
Jefferson’s Embargo killed US Trade...not the war of 1812.
If you say it twice, does that somehow make it more believable?
historical context is important.
hamilton was primarily agruing with jeffersonian faction in that report, who not only believed that an agrarian economy was the ideal, but came to believe that manufacturers and merchants were enemies to be defeated by any means necessary.
as soon as they gained power, they did their level best to destroy merchants and manufacturers with the embargo act, knowing full well it was devastating the nascent american economy in the process. it was also the first time in history that the awesome authority of the central government was used to coerce (read: force them to do something they did not want to do) american citizens.
trying to justify tariffs in 2018 with the decades long death grapple waged by jefferson and hamilton is just wrong, and, I suspect, those making that argument know it’s wrong.
this is just a weird thread.
modern tariffs gave us predatory labor unions and the worlds crappiest automobiles, just two quick examples. the proper amount of tariffs is no tariffs, which is exactly the president’s plan.
shielding anything from competition is bad for consumers, and even the industry being shielded (in the long run, at least)
The fact that I say it at all should make it more believable.
If I double post it, that’s just assurance it’s really me.
Why did Harley Davidson respond to high overseas tariffs by putting a plant there?
It’s true that Jefferson wanted the US to remain an agrarian economy and buy our manufactured goods from Europe. But Jefferson changed his minds when in his words “the unbelievable happened” and Europe cut us off from manufactured goods.
That’s the point where he realized that America needed a strong manufacturing base to survive as a free state.
That’s a lesson that has been lost on our free traitors. And it’s one of the reasons, I favor having high import tariffs.
Import tariffs lesson our dependence on other countries.
A response to tariffs is to build plants in the country imposing the tariffs.
Also, a tariff taxes everyone equally and is virtually invisible. So, who pays no taxes in America?
Don’t you think they should have some skin in the game?
America had no income tax in those years, but a graduated tax that is so graduated that half the country isn’t paying anything is an abomination for a few reasons. The most important is that the non-taxed in our era take a lot and provide very little.
Also, as a matter of national security, a nation should be self sufficient. All the way from heavy metals to shirts and shorts, a nation should be self-sufficient. To do otherwise is eventually to invite attack and overthrow.
that didn’t happen. jefferson was a francophile, a utopian, a wreckless innovator, he probably committed cowardice before the enemy, and if he was alive today, he would be bernie sanders.
you need to read up on TJ. I would start with his second term as president.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.