Donald Trump and Free Trade

The American Spectator ^ | March 7, 2018, 12:01 am | R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR

[central_va]

So the US Constitution, which provides for import tariffs explicitly, is a road map to socialism? Really? how stupid are you?

[Thibodeaux]

It’s not the constitution, it’s your interpretation

[TallahasseeConservative]

Explain to them how “Free Trade” under the current climate occurs and that number will plummet.

[central_va]

It is in the US Constitution.

Article 1 - The Legislative Branch

Section 8 - Powers of Congress

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

[gnarledmaw]

Its not an economic issue, its a strategic issue and the free traitors who post here know that.

We cant make our military hud displays, China does.

We cant meet infrastructural needs like powerline transformers. China does.

Until now, we had no way of producing our own fuel. SA did.

We lost our ability to produce steel. Japan was, see Kobe steel.

They have us weak, fragile, and nearly defenseless, just like they always wanted.

[Stingray51]

1. Following WW2 the USA had a massive advantage in terms of a skilled workforce and undamaged industrial base. Over time, as technology changed, international transportation vastly improved and other countries were able to put together workers and factories that were sufficiently advanced, the American advantage began to decline. Not disappear completely, just decline relative to where it was. Yet the free market economics professors never caught up with the changing times.
2. Yes, tariffs raise prices on consumers, threaten certain jobs and can lead to trade wars. But all taxes have negative effects. The critics of tariffs almost never compare the negative effects of tariffs to the negative effects of other kinds of taxes. Instead, they pretend that the debate is simply between tariffs and no tariffs.
3. The opponents of tariffs pretend that it makes no difference whether we actually produce things in the USA. In fact, it makes an enormous difference.

[itsahoot]

This is all about freedom.

[Oklahoma]

United Steel Workers, United Mine Workers or some other AFL-CIO union?

If you had followed the discussion you would have noticed I used “export tariffs” in response to another post. Excise taxes in tandem with export controls are another way of describing export tariffs. We have all kinds of export controls especially on defense equipment and parts.

You are no Conservative and if the truth were known you probably voted for Hillary last election.

[central_va]

I voted for Trump and I like tariffs. Then again I am a Patriot and you well, you are a traitor.

[Oklahoma]

Nothing lower than a rabid union man.

[central_va]

Nothing lower than a rabid union man.

Union people are hard to find in the private sector. Only 7% are in a union.

[loveliberty2]

Americans, in the beginning, tried socialism. Like every other people who tried such a non-starter for providing individual incentives, individual freedom, and prosperous economy, they failed. At home, theirs was a system of freedom of individual enterprise--all of which allowed them, quickly, to become what some called the "breadbasket of the world. Here is the story from one source:

The Economic Dimension Of Liberty Protected By The Constitution

"Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise."

- Thomas Jefferson

"The enviable condition of the people of the United States is often too much ascribed to the physical advantages of their soil & climate .... But a just estimate of the happiness of our country will never overlook what belongs to the fertile activity of a free people and the benign influence of a responsible government."

- James Madison

America's Constitution did not mention freedom of enterprise per se, but it did set up a system of laws to secure individual liberty and freedom of choice in keeping with Creator-endowed natural rights. Out of these, free enterprise flourished naturally. Even though the words "free enterprise' are not in the Constitution, the concept was uppermost in the minds of the Founders, typified by the remarks of Jefferson and Madison as quoted above.

Already, in 1787, Americans were enjoying the rewards of individual enterprise and free markets. Their dedication was to securing that freedom for posterity. The learned men drafting America's Constitution understood history - mankind's struggle against poverty and government oppression. And they had studied the ideas of the great thinkers and philosophers.

They were familiar with the near starvation of the early Jamestown settlers under a communal production and distribution system and Governor Bradford's diary account of how all benefited after agreement that each family could do as it wished with the fruits of its own labors.

Later, in 1776, Adam Smith's INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS and Say's POLITICAL ECONOMY had come at just the right time and were perfectly compatible with the Founders' own passion for individual liberty. Jefferson said these were the best books to be had for forming governments based on principles of freedom.

They saw a free market economy as the natural result of their ideal of liberty. They feared concentrations of power and the coercion that planners can use in planning other peoples lives; and they valued freedom of choice and acceptance of responsibility of the consequences of such choice as being the very essence of liberty. They envisioned a large and prosperous republic of free people, unhampered by government interference. The Founders believed the American people, possessors of deeply rooted character and values, could prosper if left free to:

acquire and own property have access to free markets produce what they wanted

work for whom and at what they wanted travel and live where they would choose acquire goods and services which they desired

Such a free market economy was, to them, the natural result of liberty, carried out in the economic dimension of life. Their philosophy tend­ed to enlarge individual freedom - not to restrict or diminish the individual's right to make choices and to succeed or fail based on those choices. The economic role of their Constitutional government was simply to secure rights and encourage commerce. Through the Constitution, they granted their government some very limited powers to:

• assure that the ground rules were fair (a fixed standard of weights and measures)
• encourage initiative and inventiveness (copyright and patent protection laws)
• provide a system of sound currency with an established value (gold and silver coin)
• enforce free trade (free from interfering special interests)
• protect individuals from the harmful acts of others

Adam Smith called it "the system of natural liberty." James Madison referred to it as "the benign influence of a responsible government." Others have called it the free enterprise system. By whatever name it is called, the economic system envisioned by the Founders and encouraged by the Constitution allowed individual enterprise to flourish and triggered the greatest explosion of economic progress in all of history. Americans became the first people truly to realize the economic dimension of liberty.

---

Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5

[logician2u]

Thank you.

Of the four powers of the federal government related to commerce, it appears that the first two remain as intended, although it may be about time that we reconsider the granting of hereditary monopolies with works of art, literature and music.

That would leave weights and measures. A non-profit on the model of Underwriters Labs could undertake that task, I should think.

Imagine the great flowering of business, industry, new consumer products and a growing economy if Americans were free to innovate, invent, create, build and promote their business without the ever-lurking threat of lawsuits, regulations and taxes that are now the norm.

I'll guess that you are already familiar with this short story, so a link to I, Pencil is offered as a special courtesy for those other FReepers whose expertise in matters of international trade, unfortunately, extends no further than reciting the unions' protectionist argument that raising trade barriers will "save American jobs."

(Those who like to see the movie before reading the book can watch an animated version here.)