What do you think Protectionism was?! Do you think at all or just throw words? The whold idea of protectionism was to protect our economy from subversion. It's called ensuring that our nation survived. No economy means no military. No military means anyone who wants to subjugate us can walk in and do so at will. You throw the word like it's an epithet without having any sense about what our forefathers did. And Hawley-Smoot is self explanatory - diddling beyond protection from subversion caused a trade war. Any idiot on either side of this debate knows that and can tell you that. That doesn't mean that we pull down the one defense we have against subversion and pretend we're safe.
If you want good examples of tariffs working, it's our history up till Nafta. It isn't like we have to search long and far for an example - tariffs are the reason our economy has been able to thrive since this nation was born. You got the onus on the wrong example, bud. You guys destroyed what worked in order to experiment with an unproven theory that is at best dangerous while it predicts revolution because of anticipated happenstances that have been playing out since the experiment began - as if on queue.
We don't owe it to you to show you what worked about tariffs. That is long and well established in the history of this nation. You owe us proof of your untested theory which seems impossible given the damage it's doing even now. It's like the border. But, when put to you, you have nothing but the theory to fall on and a pretense that we're doing great while all of us out here are being sacked and our jobs handed to foriegners in other lands so that you can hire there and get profits here.
Tariff Wars have been going on since this country was formed. BTW How well did them Steel Tariffs work in the early 70s how about those Auto Tariffs?
Yeah, all our auto manufacturers did so well even with the heavy Tariffs we used to have on Auto imports and our Automakers got all fat and happy and boom now most of our autos are foreign made (as in foregin companies making them, even the dometic ones) because we tried to "protect" our auto market. We made our auto industry week and we paid a heavy price for it.
"But, when put to you, you have nothing but the theory to fall on and a pretense that we're doing great while all of us out here are being sacked and our jobs handed to foriegners in other lands so that you can hire there and get profits here."
OK so if this is all so damaging and all of us/you(sic) are out of work as you say then why are we almost 12% above the normal employment rate as averaged by the BLS over the last 40 years?