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Dude, slow down. Your comma-studded run-on post was like being yelled at by a crazy person from the window of a passing train.

I gave examples of cases where strategic protection doesn't achieve its goal: but rather has achieved bad defense and bloated government.

I believe in fighting back when attacked. I was pointing out what Smith was actually saying in his point about retributive tariffs. He wasn't saying they're a good thing: he was saying that there's a place for them when someone slaps them on you so that *both sides return to a tariff-less state.*

Your industries are in an increasingly untenable position because your domestic socialists have made America a bad place for them to make money. You're not competing with slaves: you're competing with capitalists who aren't laboring under your self-imposed burdens.

You can remove those burdens and compete, you can move to other areas of competition or you can clap tariffs onto your fellow citizens to force them to do what you believe is the right thing.

Which one of these three sounds like the American thing to do?

... Your industries are in an increasingly untenable position because your domestic socialists have made America a bad place for them to make money. ...

It's more complex than your post indicates. Free enterprise and capitalism have been replaced by crony capitalism / corporatism / fascism.

The enemy within has been very successful in creating a story for the ‘left’ about economic, social, and environmental ‘justice’ and a story for the ‘right’ about ‘free trade’, 'comparative advantage', and 'profits uber alles' with no reference to patriotism or morality. Both stories lead to the same place - destruction of the American economy, security, national sovereignty, traditional culture, values and its pesky middle class under the tyranny of global communism.

"Free Trade ™" as currently used, refers to agreements, designed by globalists and enforced by unelected bureaucrats at the WTO. These agreements place American workers and companies (burdened by onerous regulation and taxation) in an untenable competition with global corporations and workers who aren't even bound by minimal standards regarding working conditions, safety, or environment.

National borders are viewed only as an impediment to the free movement of goods and natural persons. "Free Trade ™" agreements over ride US immigration law. This is part of the reason we are importing 125,000 new legal workers (guest workers who often pay no or partial taxes and green cards) and are infested by ~40 million illegal aliens.

Corporations benefit from cheap labor while passing part of the cost of their employees onto the US taxpayer. Illegal aliens cost $1/4 - $ 1/3 trillion per year and 4.5 million low salaried immigrant households are subsidized by ~$20,000 per year.

"Free Trade ™" seems to work one way in the real world of international trade. Many nations have de facto tariffs in the form of VAT traxes, fees, and delays in their customs facilities.

Under "Free Trade ™" There is no level playing field; even if the onerous tax and regulatory burden were removed, an American business hiring American workers cannot compete with corporations using workers in a country where you can hire 20 workers for the price of one American nor with companies using illegals or guest workers whose salaries are so low that the cost of hiring them is subsidized by the US tax payer. That is unless you are willing to give up our standard of living and devolve into third world living standards.