Protectionism worked great for Early America. We had tariffs on English imports to help our infant industries to grow. Textiles among them. Protectionism can work out very well...all depends on the time and place.
I don’t oppose protectionism on principle because I have not bought into the myth of free trade. I am not a libertarian. I don’t go for open borders and free movement of cheap 3rd world labor....So why would I be for the free movement of slave labor goods from slave labor nations like China? Screw ‘em!
” I don’t oppose protectionism on principle because I have not bought into the myth of free trade. “
Well, here’s a ‘myth’ that you, apparently, choose to ignore, also.. (Surprising, since in most of your postings, you appear to be literate in the basics of Economics..)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_curve
Perhaps you could refresh your knowledge of this Basic Principle of Economics, and then explain to me how it doesn’t apply to your love of Tarrifs.....
Apologies if I have the wrong period of American history here from the one you're citing - but being forced to buy Northern was just one more bone of contention between North and South in the run-up to the Civil War. A great many Americans bitterly resented being walled off from European goods. Think on that as Obama forces you to pay for Government fleets of Chevy Volts.
Also: people in China are not slaves, except in the same way that most of us are slaves: as in 'wage-slaves'. Their pay is a living wage. Their working- and living- conditions are miserable compared with mine, but they are luxurious compared with what they were 30 years ago, and they are rapidly improving.
But let's say - for the sake of argument - that the Chinese should be dumped back into absolute stark Mao-like poverty because we can't bring ourselves to buy stuff from poor people. India and the rest of Asia will jump in to fill the gap.
In this example: will American industries and American consumers have gained a thing from destroying China? Will Americans discover that the prices in WalMart have gone up, and start shrieking about gouging? Or will they belatedly realize that the only way to compete is to compete.
Reduce the barriers to wealth production! Americans are tough cookies: they just need the burdens of crushing taxation, crushing legal vulnerability and crushing regulation lifted off their shoulders.
But don't 'protect' your industries. You'll just turn them into somnolent parasites feeding upon the Government teat. GM is a perfect example of this.
Hope this was helpful.