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Walter Williams: The Unseen Cost Of Saving Jobs With Tariffs
IBD ^ | 03/09/2016 | Walter Williams

Posted on 03/09/2016 6:41:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Claude Frederic Bastiat (1801-50) — a French classical liberal theorist, political economist and member of the French National Assembly — wrote an influential essay titled “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen.”

He argued that when making laws or economic decisions, it is imperative that we examine not only what is seen but also what is unseen. In other words, examine the whole picture.

Americans who support tariffs on foreign goods could benefit immensely from Bastiat’s admonition. A concrete example was the Bush administration’s 8% to 30% tariffs in 2002 on several types of imported steel. They were levied in an effort to protect jobs in the ailing U.S. steel industry.

Those tariffs caused the domestic price for some steel products, such as hot-rolled steel, to rise by as much as 40%. The clear beneficiaries of the steel tariffs were steel industry executives and stockholders and the 1,700 or so steelworkers whose jobs were saved.

But there is no such thing as a free lunch or a something-for-nothing machine. Whenever there is a benefit of doing something, there is a guaranteed cost.

A study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, predicted that saving those 1,700 jobs in the steel industry would cost American consumers $800,000 per job, in the form of higher prices. That’s just the monetary side of the picture.

According to a study commissioned by the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition, steel-users — such as the U.S. auto industry, its suppliers, heavy construction equipment manufacturers and others — were harmed by higher steel prices.

It is estimated that the steel tariffs caused at least 4,500 job losses in no fewer than 16 states, with more than 19,000 jobs lost in California, 16,000 in Texas and about 10,000 each in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jobs; tariffs; taxs
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To: SeekAndFind

You are talking past my comments because you seem to have conflated what I said with, well, I just don’t even know what!


41 posted on 03/09/2016 7:31:17 AM PST by BlackAdderess (Brexit, Grexit... USexit???)
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To: cymbeline

I agree.


42 posted on 03/09/2016 7:32:33 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Facing Trump nomination inevitability, folks are now openly trying to help Hillary destroy him.)
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To: riverdawg

I’m not convinced that shirts made here have to cost $100 bucks

Wages are vastly over rated when you study their impact on the actual cost of a product.

If a person makes $15.00 an hour and makes 1 shirt, that adds $15.00 to the cost of the shirt.

In truth, the shirt is probably put together in a manner that produces five shirts per hour.

The plant costs are more too, but I’m not buying the idea that a decent profit on volume can’t be made for $30 bucks a shirt.


43 posted on 03/09/2016 7:47:06 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Facing Trump nomination inevitability, folks are now openly trying to help Hillary destroy him.)
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To: DoughtyOne

One of my favorite examples of the counter-productive nature of tariffs is our tariff on Chinese-made tires. The tariff cost US consumers about $900,000 per job saved and mainly lined the pockets of tire producers here and abroad.

https://www.piie.com/publications/pb/pb12-9.pdf


44 posted on 03/09/2016 7:48:15 AM PST by riverdawg
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To: dennisw
Only stupid Anglo-nations elevate libertarian type free trade. You think the Chinese elites preach this garbage within China?

I use to think our people were fools. I don't believe that anymore. I think our State Department, CIA, NSA, etc are 'giving speeches'... in exchange for bad deals.

In short they're taking bribes.

"Legal' bribes, but bribes none the less.

45 posted on 03/09/2016 7:48:21 AM PST by GOPJ (Republican elites have turned into " race-baiting bigots" - feeding on PC mob evils.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Yes Walter, our founders were very stupid people. Thanks...

It never ceases to amaze me how Freepers, who are supposed to be conservatives, continue to trash serious conservative icons like Williams, Sowell, Rush, Levin, etc. -- people who have been passionate, thoughtful, articulate and reasoned advocates of conservatism for decades -- just because they disagree with Trump, who is arguably not a reliable conservative at all.

I don't know what it is with Trumpers, but their over-the-top nastiness is appalling.

Funny thing. Yesterday I posted a thread reporting on a comment by Rush, and it got 134 responses, most of which were full of bitterness for Rush. The funny part is that of the 134 responses, mostly from Trump supporters, almost all of the respondents proved that they either didn't read the actual article or else that they misunderstood the point if they did.

Honestly, when I read the comments from the usual gang of Trump supporters here, I see very little but blind, cult-like devotion. The bitterness against those who question or disagree with Trump on any issue is stunning, and is turning FR into a swamp like DU.

My point is, you can support Trump without being a vituperative, bitter, sarcastic pucker hole. Try it sometime.

DISCLOSURE: I voted for Cruz in the primary, but will certainly vote for Trump if he wins the nomination.

46 posted on 03/09/2016 7:50:25 AM PST by Maceman
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To: GOPJ

My simple answer is there are billions and millions to be made in “free trade”. Just ask the owners of Home Depot, Amazon and Walmart. Walmart which really kicked off the Chinese import surge.

Retard hacks in DC got the crumbs and the run-off. Meanwhile the American sell out capitalists made their billions and millions


47 posted on 03/09/2016 7:55:58 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: riverdawg

Honestly, I’ve seen so many phony baloney studies in my life, that I get a better laugh than I get watching a sit com when I read them.

Let’s look at one aspect of this article.

They address the loss in residual jobes because folks won’t have money to spend on other things.

They don’t mention that these workers would be unemployed. They don’t mention that their suppliers would be unemployed. They don’t mention that all the people they support and purchase things from would be negatively impacted.

The local economy would be negatively impacted and local regional state and federal tax revenues would be negatively impacted.

Further, I’m not totally convinced their assumptions on total outlays per person are on the up and up either.

Everybody has an ax to grind, and they do their best to move opinion with whatever they can come up with.

You should read some of the convoluted logic in union presentations.


48 posted on 03/09/2016 8:07:09 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Facing Trump nomination inevitability, folks are now openly trying to help Hillary destroy him.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“It is estimated “

Estimated, but never concluded.


49 posted on 03/09/2016 8:07:32 AM PST by CodeToad (Islam should be banned and treated as a criminal enterprise!)
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To: DoughtyOne

“I’m not buying the idea that a decent profit on volume can’t be made for $30 bucks a shirt.”

Then you should go into the shirtmaking business in the US. I would love to buy a good-quality, US-made shirt for $30. I can’t find one.

As for labor costs in US manufacturing, they have declined dramatically in the past 25 years because of increased productivity, but they still comprise over 50% of all costs:

http://blogs.piie.com/realtime/?p=4843


50 posted on 03/09/2016 8:09:28 AM PST by riverdawg
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To: SeekAndFind

Liar, what does Dr. Walter E. Williams know about economics. Trump’s gonna magic away the numbers. Common sense is no match for magic.


51 posted on 03/09/2016 8:12:54 AM PST by Idaho_Cowboy (I Samuel 8:19-20 The New Spirit of America?)
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To: Maceman

What you might want to do, is climb down off your high rocking horse and grasp that what I said was true.

Oh, there is that...

How do you think our government was financed before income taxes in the early 1900s?

Like Williams, you now attribute our founding fathers to be Leftist idiots.

For the record, neither am I.

Ah, no...


52 posted on 03/09/2016 8:12:55 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Facing Trump nomination inevitability, folks are now openly trying to help Hillary destroy him.)
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To: riverdawg

Great, then you’ve just confirmed that a shirt doesn’t cost more than $7 bucks or so to make.


53 posted on 03/09/2016 8:14:44 AM PST by DoughtyOne (Facing Trump nomination inevitability, folks are now openly trying to help Hillary destroy him.)
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To: CodeToad

RE: Estimated, but never concluded.

That’s why they call Economics the dismal science. We have men like Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and ... Paul Krugman who have won the Nobel Economics Prize.


54 posted on 03/09/2016 8:15:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

We live in a country where 10’s of millions of people are paid to vote and not work!!


55 posted on 03/09/2016 8:15:43 AM PST by DungeonMaster (the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.)
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To: SeekAndFind; central_va

“Smoot-Hawley might not have CAUSED the great depression, but it did a lot of damage to the economy.”

Smoot-Hawley wasn’t much different than the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922. Which was followed by the Roaring Twenties.

The collapse of the American banking system from 1930-33 was the cause of the Great Depression. Smoot-Hawley didn’t help but it wasn’t the cause.


56 posted on 03/09/2016 8:16:45 AM PST by Pelham (more than election. Revolution)
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To: SeekAndFind

Trump is not a genius. He is a superb panderer to the electorate. He supports, and pledged to increase the highly destructive ethanol mandate. Damaging first to our economy, damaging second by manipulating the energy market by forcing a product on consumers, and damaging third to the environment for many reasons, the primary being that it is a very fuel consuming product to produce.

Trump is just another very loud mouthed extreme politician that knows how to dominate the airwaves with outlandish behavior and statements. He is a boor. He would never be allowed in my home—but I will support this very flawed man as the nominee.


57 posted on 03/09/2016 8:20:40 AM PST by whistleduck ("....the calm confidence of a Christian with 4 aces".....S.)
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To: Pelham

Smoot-Hawley only effected trade which was a fringe part of the economy in the 1930’s.


58 posted on 03/09/2016 8:21:17 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I recall that tariffs, historically, were not a good idea- played a part in the Depression.

It would be nice if these types of issues were discussed with the candidates, instead of body parts, insults, or if a candidate is Hitler or not..

59 posted on 03/09/2016 8:23:18 AM PST by Pajamajan ( Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everythingo you have. Don't wait. Do it today.)
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To: LostPassword

Well said. What we need is a discussion that is long overdue. We do not have to take what ever is given in these trade agreements without understanding the consequences. Winners and losers? What is the greatest good for the common middle class citizen?


60 posted on 03/09/2016 8:24:42 AM PST by KC_for_Freedom (California engineer (ret) and ex-teacher (ret) now part time Professor (what do you know?))
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