“Change the tax code, and encourage manufacturing to return to America.
It is that simple.
Build stuff here.”
To the founding fathers, free trade meant citizens of the US were free to trade with any country, not that every country in the world had open access to the US market. From the time of the founding until the 20th century US tariffs on imports were high In fact until the passage of the income tax amendment to the Constitution in the early 20th century, the federal government was funded by the tariff. Contrary to the propaganda spread by free traders, the economic infrastructure of the US was built during periods of high tariffs creating unprecedented prosperity for the citizens.
The founding fathers would have a simple prescription for our economic ills:
1) Reduce the size of government dramatically. Limit the federal government to specifically enumerated powers and responsibilities.
2) Raise tariffs to levels required to 100% fund the government and pay down the debt (exactly what Alexander Hamilton did to pay off the Revolutionary War debt for an insolvent new nation).
3) Go back on the gold standard, mint gold coinage.
4) Eliminate the Federal Reserve. Have the Treasury issue money, backed by gold and silver.
5) Eliminate the income tax.
6) Reform tort law
7) Watch the economy boom.
Another spot on post by the Soul of the South.