8 thoughts on “We Made A Terrible Mistake”

  1. He makes no recognition of a major reason we manufacture less here: The enormous costs added by the regulatory state. If you try to fix that with tariffs and quotas, you just make yourself poorer still.

    And he ignores that it is largely a potential problem importing crucial goods because the US is at war with the whole world and acting like a warmongering bully and ensuring the US is hated everywhere.

    A civilized world allows people to trade with one another voluntarily and peacefully. And becomes more civilized thereby. The corrupt cancerous organism that rules the US Empire will ever come up with more reasons it wants more power over you.

    1. I think one of the factors that led the various corporations to move production overseas, J. Sobran, was the difficulty with employee populations. Unions, strikes, workers’ comp, constantly escalating pay demands, worker misconduct, lawsuits all led capital to flee.

      The question then arises as to where that leaves average Americans, and what you do about it. Large proportions of the population were left underemployed and unable to support a family.

      1. “Unions, strikes, workers’ comp, constantly escalating pay demands, worker misconduct, lawsuits all led capital to flee.”

        Fair point, Triad. But the freer the economy, the better these things can be negotiated and resolved. Where govt gives unions huge legal advantages, unions will be prone to price themselves out of the market. Plenty of that has happened and thus created greater desire for international trade. If you don’t allow it, you give the unions monopoly power.

        Competition is a really good thing for the quality & price of products we buy. Outlawing competition is not.

        Further, is it Christian to hold a gun to my head and say to me “you can’t buy that cheaper product because it was made by a Canadian”? Are Canadians not the children of God also?

        “The question then arises as to where that leaves average Americans, and what you do about it.”

        Seriously deregulate the economy to lower the cost of production. People are poor because they are unproductive or not allowed to be productive. US producers already have the cost advantage of foreign competitors having to pay significant transportation cost to get their products here.

        And I believe generally the US has cheaper cost of capital. (For instance, I had a friend from Pakistan who said to me “When I lived in Pakistan, I could afford a driver but not a car; here in America, I can afford a car, but not a driver–he wasn’t a good driver & could have used one.)

        1. I agree that giving unions advantages contributed to this problem, J. Sobran. And I agree that deregulation is a good thing.

          I don’t think anyone is holding a gun to anyone’s head over trade. I don’t think Christianity speaks directly to the issues of whether international trade should be forbidden for some countries, or whether tariffs are justified. There is ample scriptural reason to think that magistrates are charged by God with the task of serving the common good; and that can perhaps influence discussions regarding trade. I think, for instance, it was a huge mistake to give China Most Favored Nation status.

          1. Try buying some product without paying the prohibitive tariff from a foreign person, and see if the US govt doesn’t show up with guns.

            “ample scriptural reason to think that magistrates are charged by God with the task of serving the common good”

            Totally discredited by reality. Our magistrates are rather similar to organized crime. For instance, the steel and aluminum tariffs are totally unjustified by anything other than campaign contributions.

          2. It will be interesting to see, J. Sobran, if the Supreme Court tries to restrain Trump once again with his use of tariffs. You will recall they had done so once within the last several months, but his Administration then used a different legal device to employ tariffs. The issue of whether these tariffs should be set by Congress or the executive is a big one.

  2. I also agree that drastically cutting back regulations that harms production is good policy. However a body of economists argue that free trade could possibly lead to domestic job losses and regional economic decline .

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