Let's assume a 15% tariff on all foreign goods. Here's what I think would occur as a result.
1) Domestic producers come under immediate pressure to raise their prices by 15% as well.
a) All their employees expect a 15% raise.
b) All of their subcontractors and suppliers know the money is out there and immediately charge a 15% above previous rates.
2) Every consumer in the economy now has to pay 15% for everything they buy.
3) Every foreign country we do business with takes immediate offense and tariffs us by at least 15%. The ones that don't particularly like us make it 30% out of spite.
4) As a net result the following occur.
a) Intrest rates decrease because our tariff regime chased out foreign capital. US banks can and do charge more for the use of their money. Fewer marginal firms can afford credit and therefore are no longer able to debt finance. No investment means no new jobs.
b) Prices increase across the board and wages stay stagnant or decrease as a result of the increased cost of credit and capital.
c) Standards of living go down as the US economy contracts until it reaches an equilibrium.
Really? Viewed as a tax on corporations, tariffs are just another form of regulation and income for government programs. Couple tariff increases with a corresponding decrease in individual (non-corporation) income taxes, and the net effect would be more consumption by those individuals within the US to drive the domestic economy.
Basically I am coming to believe that the same arguments that apply to the reduction of regulations and taxes on multinationals are also applicable, if not more applicable, to individual taxpayers. And the sky-falling predictions of free traders droning on about how tariffs can only hurt me begin to fall flat. Maybe we should even arrange for a tariff withholding for multinationals. The point is that taxation is a fact of life and it is the free traders who seem to be duped into whining about it on behalf of the all-wonderful multinationals (who after all are only fictitious persons).
Now if all one wants to do is increase the wealth and power of multinationals at the expense of real US citizens via "free trade", you may have scored some points...
(And in response to what will probably be your next point, I do draw a distinction between large and small investors, due to the inability of insider trading laws to keep the stock market playing field level.)