Offset, of course, by considerable loss of purchasing power by consumers and companies, and resultant job loss.
IOW, somebody who must spend considerably more of their money on clothes, tools and fishing equipment because imports have been subjected to high tariffs will have less money available for things such as Starbucks or eating out at a nice place.
What I am saying is that any policy such as you propose would by definition result in both job losses and job creation. The net effect, which I don't claim to be able to predict, may not necessarily be as positive as you expect.
I have always been amazed by the way people will sneer at lower prices whereas nobody sneers at higher income. Yet a 10% drop in the cost of what I must buy due to the availability of imports is more valuable to me than a 10% increase in wages.
I also think you gloss over the loss of freedom imposed by protective tariffs as unimportant as long as it doesn't result in a larger government. So is a larger government bad in and of itself, or because it is likely to lead to reduced freedom? If the second, aren't other ways of reducing freedom also bad?
Right.
I agree with you. However China is (rapidly) gaining global power.
America businesses are on the wrong end of that part.
At some point China as an international threat, takes precedence over China as a force for growth.
In my opinion that time has arrived.
China now is the world’s largest exporter.
You may not feel this is important.
I feel it is more important to America and the globe, than continued “free trade”.
We find ourselves at opposing ends of this question.
I am not saying you are wrong.
But I’m not saying you are right either.
We are simply on opposing ends of a spectrum on the question of China.
I say we need to bring American production back to America.
How we do that is what I am working at conceptualizing.
I believe such an approach as I have detailed, is just about the only way to address Chinese competition, without leaving our government in control of way more than they currently are.
But we need to change the way things are done.
China is an emerging threat.
We need to treat them as such. Not making them ever stronger.