So we should be just like them and restrict the freedom of our citizens by forcing them to accept fewer choices at higher prices. Don't you think American citizens would prefer to keep more of their money in their own pockets so they can buy other goods their family might need, or to save for retirement, or for their child's education? Do you think they'd rather pay higher taxes (tariffs are taxes) and have less freedom of choice? Nope, they want higher prices and fewer choices. For their children!
Would your proof of this be the 125 million Americans who shop at Wal-Mart every week?
The result can be nothing other than what it’s been: great benefits for those who own the factors of production and diminishing benefits for those who provide labor and lower skilled work.
Ahh, the argument of the class warrior. If you could prove that real incomes have been falling for Americans since free(r) trade was embraced after WWII, you'd do it. If you could show us a high unemployment rate, or declining employment, you'd do it. If you could show us a country with a declining manufacturing output, you would. Can you also show us a declining GDP, falling household wealth and negative per-capita GDP growth?
This is called efficiency, but one person’s efficiency is another person’s diminishing standard of living.
Economics is a zero sum game? When one person gains another person loses? You're spouting nothing more than what one would hear from a liberal economics professor at any liberal university. I think you're the one slavishly adhering to what you heard in college or read in a book by Krugman.
There are sensible ways to manage trade, but this bogus free trade that rewards some while penalizing others in the US will eventually have the result anyone should have predicted.
You don't like a system with winners and losers? Perhaps you have a problem with capitalism? What is your sensible method for managing trade? Are you a bigger government conservative? Do you think that smaller government is good except when it comes to trade? Do you believe that somehow, when it comes to trade, all of a sudden government becomes reliable, responsible and capable, and can choose fairly which industries should be protected, how much protection they should receive and for how long they should receive it? Do you really think that the industry truly deserving of protection will receive it or, do you think it will go only to organizations that are politically connected? Restricting competition makes companies better? Are you saying that career government bureaucrats know what's better for individuals than the individual?
If the government knows what's best for the individual with regards to trade, why wouldn't they know what's best for us in other areas? Where does your do gooding end?
“So we should be just like them and restrict the freedom of our citizens by forcing them to accept fewer choices at higher prices.”
Your entire long post is based on this belief: that the lowest prices obtainable should be the determining factor in trade/economic policy.
A consumer’s choice has more than that one factor. Choice also involves how much buying power one has and what one can afford. We still have inflation in this country. Cheap imported consumer goods have not offset all inflation, but the loss of many jobs has cut the buying power of many Americans. Some things are cheaper, others things aren’t. Consumers also need homes to buy or rent. Are they cheap now?
If the lowest possible prices are your only value, then that’s how it is for you. But that’s not how it is for many other Americans. There other components, not just economic theories, whether you purists like it or not.