All tariffs will do for us is allow the US Govt to keep our regulations high, keep taxes high, and take those once-cheap goods and put the tariff amount from your pocket into the government's. Do you want to pay more to our federal government ? I think paying over 40% now is a wee bit the reason why we cannot compete with some of these countries.
All Buchanan is advocating here is to increase the take of the federal government and a lower living standard for us all. You like paying double the world price for sugar, for example ? My first computer, in 1982, cost me $ 4000 without a hard drive (it had 2 floppies). Now ? Hundreds of times cheaper. Am I better off with trade ? You bet.
Von Mises will tell you, if you read him, is that those governments who subsidize their industries are making a wealth transfer from their nation to those they trade with.
Why don't you attack the regulations(and property taxes)and not the tariffs. They are substantially the reason why US goods cost more.
Absolutely and positively correct! Well stated!
Your $4K computer (1985) would have cost you about $1K in 1990--and it was STILL made in the USA.
Since 1995, cost reductions have to do with slave labor, not manufacturing efficiencies--all of which were achieved in the USA before that date.