Indeed. For the life of me, I don't understand why these two issues are never considered or even mentioned by protectionists!
Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.
You may assume that the centerpiece of a protectionist policy is the tariff. The tariff is just the blunt object meant to enforce the overall agreement.
The most important piece isn’t protectionist at all except in spirit, which is to address the reasons companies leave. In a world of automated manufacturing, wages aren’t the key issue, the regulatory and legal climate is. Go after the reasons companies leave, clearing away the regulatory threats and hurdles and companies are less inclined to leave. Working in Mexico or China carries with it another set of problems that you wouldn’t choose if you didn’t have to.
The other part deals with the target country’s own protectionist policies, opening them up to your products. That is something that has been ignored until now. A lot of these countries have hidden tariffs that keep our products out, while our markets are open to them.
When Trump talks about making the markets fair, people just hear “tariffs” and “protectionism” but don’t hear the details which are quite free-market.
Another thing to remember, is that the economy isn’t healthy if you can get it cheap at Walmart, but your brother-in-law is living on your couch because they closed the factory here.
Our upper management comes right out and tells us jobs are being moved to low-cost areas. They are not talking about regulation they are talking wages.
Indeed. For the life of me, I don't understand why these two issues are never considered or even mentioned by protectionists!
Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.