Posted on 09/13/2010 10:42:54 AM PDT by rmlew
Contemporary American politics is conducted in the shadow of historical myths that inform our present-day choices. Unfortunately, these myths sometimes lead us terribly astray. Case in point is the popular idea that America’s economic tradition has been economic liberty, laissez faire, and wide-open cowboy capitalism. This notion sounds obvious, and it fits the image of this country held by both the Right, which celebrates this tradition, and the Left, which bemoans it. And it seems to imply, among other things, that free trade is the American Way. Don’t Tread On Me or my right to import.
It is, in fact, very easy to construct an impressive-sounding defense of free trade as a form of economic liberty on the basis of this myth. Unfortunately, this myth is just that: a myth, not real history. The reality is that all four of the presidents on Mount Rushmore were protectionists. (Even the pseudo-libertarian Jefferson came around after the War of 1812.) Historically, protectionism has been, in fact, the real American Way.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/13/america-was-founded-as-a-protectionist-nation/#ixzz0zQpQypXn
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
If it saves just one child's tooth....
Hawaii’s sugar industry died becuase of foreign sugar.
Tarriffs on foreign goods are actually one of the few ways the US government should be funded.
Fighter jets, missile defense systems, radar systems and annoying reality shows?
I do overseas business all the time. It cracks me up to think of all the little twinkie Free Traitors back in the U.S. babbling theoretical BS from Adam WhatHisName or some blissninny Libertarian web site.
The people outside of the borders of the U.S. don't believe ANY of that crap. They see weaklings willing to let them take something, SO THEY DO.
To them, what's theirs is theirs, what's ours is negotiable.
Good thoughtful answer, thanks. For my part I can’t bring myself to fully join one camp or the other.
Commercial Airplanes, Computer Operating Systems, oil rigs.
Cigarettes, and whiskey and wild, wild women. ;-)
Well, what makes us different from the free traders and the all the dime store economists and libertarians is that we see the real world for what it is, not some theoretical BS that has no application in the REAL WORLD.
Americans, both liberals and conservatives, need to get their heads out of the clouds and books and deal with the world that actually exists.
Barack Obama is a failure because he clings to his Marx and Engels like the Gospel.
And the free traders are sending us down a primrose path of self-destruction because they cling to Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
We live in 2010, not the 18th and 19th century.
Yes, the mighty government knows best how and why to regulate trade. All hail the mighty government!
You're awfully proud of your ignorance, aren't you?
From the article:
It is no accident that after independence, a tariff was the very second bill signed by President Washington. It is also no accident that the Constitution—which notoriously does not authorize a great many things our government does today— explicitly does give Congress the authority “to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” (Article I, Section 8.) This fact drives flag-draped libertarians crazy, but there it is.
We could, but we'd take a huge hit to our wealth and power as a result.
In fact that is how we used to be and tariffs were the main source of revenue for our young Federal Gov’t. Alcohol and tobacco taxes were also important.
We ought to go back to supporting the government solely with consumption taxes, but they should be structured so as not to discriminate against imports or types of goods (I like my microbrews and my single malts, thank you very much!).
Almost all innovative new drugs are researched and manufactured here in the good ol’ US of A, to sale for the rest of the world
(if their socialist medical care death panels think saving or improving their lives is worth the cost, and if they don't strong-arm “at cost” pricing out of us under the threat of them making a “generic” that doesn't respect our intellectual property).
America was founded as a racist nation. From Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
It makes just as much sense to cite that in favor of slavery as to cite the article's title in favor of protectionism.
Not for long: COMAC
Hint: they don't plan on buying anything from us....'cuz we ain't Chinese
> Red China is free?
>
>Who knew
Given the state of regulation, restriction, and legalisms of America right now Red China may indeed be freer than America.
Maybe we should just adopt the Living Constitution paradigm of the Left and get over it, huh? The Constitution is soooo Old Dead White Guy, right?
Fweee Twade = multiculturalism = We all hold hands and sing We Are the Weird
Gosh it sounds so Wonderful
We might even forget the Great Recession for a minute or two
Pulling the Race Card in a free trade discussion?! Jeez...
>Hawaii’s sugar industry died becuase of foreign sugar.
>
>Tarriffs on foreign goods are actually one of the few ways the US government should be funded.
Indeed; especially when one considers that America is so rich in natural resources that it could easily become [once again] self-sufficient.
So you SUPPORT the mercantilism that led to American Revolution.
Sorry, I’ll stick with Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations.
The 3/5ths compromise is an acknowledgment that the elected representatives of a slave State did not represent fully the interests of their slave constituents, but at best, only 3/5ths of their concerns.
And you are absolutely incorrect to say that the provision is at all racists. The only “race” mentioned is Indians, and then it was their POLITICAL allegiance that was of merit to the argument, not their race (i.e. “Indians not taxed”).
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