"(T)he supporters of tariffs treat it as self-evident that the creation of jobs is a desirable end, in and of itself, regardless of what the persons employed do. That is clearly wrong. If all we want are jobs, we can create any number -- for example, have people dig holes and then fill them up again, or perform other useless tasks. Work is sometimes its own reward. Mostly, however, it is the price we pay to get the things we want. Our real objective is not just jobs but productive jobs -- jobs that will mean more goods and services to consume."
--Milton Friedman
Incentive/Disincentive effects aside, I'd rather pay somebody to have free time or jobs search time, than pay them for make work.
But we are not talking about make work. We are talking about productive jobs and productive industries. We are talking about America's strength in terms of productive capacity and independence from foreign nations. And we are talking about putting Americans to work vs putting Chinese to work.