[agere_contra]

Tariffs wouldn't bring industry back to America.

They would turn what industry America still has into just another component of the bloated welfare state. There's simply no need to compete when you have a captive market. That's one of the reasons why the Soviet car industry wasn't the wonder of the world.

Tariffs would also give the Government the ability to choose winners and losers in the domestic marketplace, allowing them to effectively enforce unionization and the rest of their whacked-out agenda

If you hand tariff power to the Government then your most important competitive act suddenly isn't to work better, faster, cheaper - it's to lobby the Government for interventions that suit your company.

Because once you allow Government to place a foot on the hose of production, negotiating with that foot becomes more important than anything else.

Finally - tariffs breach Freedom of Association. Why would we force Americans to buy something they don't want? If a foreign car is better, faster or cheaper than a GM Volt, by what right would we interfere?

If you truly want to bring industry back to America then remove the barriers to industry in America. Capital goes where it is treated best.

Reduce Corporate taxation. Also, simplify taxation. Tax fulfillment costs have become a significant burden on smaller businesses.

Reduce the vast panoply of EPA and other environmental regulations. Companies aren't going to relocate to a country where wood stoves can be declared illegal.

Remove arbitrary, vindictive Government (we all remember Gibson's guitars, I hope).

Get rid of Obamacare. America isn't France. Companies need employees to work more than 29 hours a week, and that's only a small piece of the anti-competitive madness pouring out from Obamacare.

Well, hope this was helpful.

[longtermmemmory]

In the 50’s industry needed government.

Now,

Government desperatly needs industry.

Industry no longer needs government, in fact they can pretty much buy any governemnt they need. ExxonMobil’s “state department” is far more efficient then the US department of (screw ups) state.

[Errant]

Sound analysis, but the keyword included with the suggestion of tariffs was "sensible". Of course that would be meaningless unless some limits were placed upon the maximum tariffs that could be levied on any single item, let's say.

Any tax plan needs careful consideration and much public debate. For certain, the boot of the federal government should be removed from the neck of average citizens. The states should ALWAYS be the conduit between the two, unless it is a matter of a state abusing rights of citizens as granted by the Constitution.

[central_va]

So what you are saying that US manufacturers never compete with each other? Or they are price fixing. This kind of anti USA brain washing is what passes for education at "Business School". Pure BS. Up until 1980 we manged to survive making most if our own products, HOW DID WE DO IT! It's amazing!

America was strongest when tariffs were high, income taxes did not exit and manufacturing humming along.