"
Not a good idea. Read up on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff and how that made the depths of the Great Depression worse."
But don't read from the last ten years of rhetoric vomited by opinion columnists sponsored by the most influential constituents (those who also sponsor the media). Start here for some facts.
President Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Bill in June of 1930. Investments and GDP were declining steeply before Smoot-Hawley passed. GDP increased in 1934, while Smoot-Hawley was still in effect.
Not only was Hoover a Republican, but Smoot and Hawley were also Republicans. The onset of WWII wasn't the cause of the upturn, as the economy was reviving long before that.
Gross Domestic Product (ref. 1929 dollars in millions)
Year GDP
1929 101,444
1930 91,513
1931 84,300
1932 70,682
1933 68,337
1934 74,609
1935 85,806
1936 95,798
1937 103,917
1938 96,670
1939 103,736
1940 112,961
1941 126,237
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Series 08166.
Compensation from before World War I through the Great Depression
by Robert VanGiezen and Albert E. Schwenk
Bureau of Labor Statistics
John T. Dunlop and Walter Galenson, eds., Labor in the Twentieth Century (New York, Academic Press, 1978), p. 30.
Dunlop and Galenson, p. 27.
| Year |
Unemployment rate |
|
1923-29 |
3.3 |
|
1930 |
8.9 |
|
1931 |
15.9 |
|
1932 |
23.6 |
|
1933 |
24.9 |
|
1934 |
21.7 |
|
1935 |
20.1 |
|
1936 |
17.0 |
|
1937 |
14.3 |
|
1938 |
19.0 |
|
1939 |
17.2 |
|
1940 |
14.6 |
|
1941 |
9.9 |
|
1942 |
4.7 |
"
I'd rather have streamlined business regulations and a much simpler, more business-friendly tax code to really stimulate real business growth in the USA. In effect, make American businesses way more competitive in the export market."
I would, too, but big, government-linked import interests aren't going to reverse their decades of work in local governments at outlawing new, small production shops (outlawing potential competition). Only one of their many efforts against new, potential, domestic competition.