From 1865 to 1900, the average tariff paid (not the posted tariff, the tariff paid) on imported goods into the US exceeded 27% in every year. In 1990 the average tariff paid was 2.8% and today the average tariff paid is 1.3%. Today foreign factories pay less (as a percentage of product value) for access to the US market than the American consumer pays in sales taxes to purchase those same products.
The US enjoyed unprecedented industrial growth and economic expansion in the 35 years following the Civil War and became the largest industrial power on the planet. From 1865 to 1900 the average income of non farm workers grew by 75% and grew another 33% by 1918. The number of farms tripled in the nation from 1860 to 1905. GNP grew 600% from 1865-1900. In 1865 there were 35,000 miles of railroad track in the US, by 1900 193,000 miles. US entrepreneurs and inventors created entire industries and innovations — petroleum, electric lighting, camera, typewriter, phonograph, motion pictures, telephone, the department store, national discount store chains (Woolworth), mail order catalogs (Sears), prepackaged foods (Kellogg, Post), refrigeration, and the corporate organization structure. Manned flight would follow in 1903.
I suggest the 35 year period of record economic growth from 1865-1900 is proof high protective tariffs can facilitate a period of rapid economic expansion and high innovation. I would also suggest the past 25 years of virtually zero tariffs, with the resulting deindustrialization, have been a disaster for the US economy and the average working American who has seen a decline in his/her standard of living for the first time in US history.
—Son Of The south
RE: I suggest the 35 year period of record economic growth from 1865-1900 is proof high protective tariffs can facilitate a period of rapid economic expansion and high innovation.
Again, let’s not forget that at the time of unprecedented growth we had : ZERO INCOME TAX, NO IRS, LITTLE REGULATION, NO FORCED UNION PARTICIPATION.
I said to Son of the South, I’d be willing to have those tariffs in place with one proviso — ELIMINATION OF THE INCOME TAX AND THE IRS.
It is has to be A BOTH/AND condition, not one without the other.