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20 sats \ 3 replies \ @B_rian 27 Nov 2024 \ on: Our History of Protectionist Tariff Train Wrecks econ
Tariffs are a necessary threat to China to respond to their fiat paper games and practice of flooding the market with cheap goods from slave labor.
As the world moves to gold/bitcoin settlement, free trade may emerge as advantageous again. However, a nation must always utilize all tools available to hold their trade partners accountable for malfeasance.
To the extent that other countries use 'slave labor' or heavily subsidized industries...
It just makes the products cheaper for Americans. There is no free lunch in economics.
Somewhere, somehow, sometime those goods are being paid for - and to the extent they are made 'cheaper' overseas just makes them cheaper for Americans, allowing them to buy more and save more for other things.
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That’s right TANSTAAFL! To pay for those cheap goods, people here are put out of work or never get work. The people who consume the slave-labor made goods are supporting slavery. Will they admit that? NO. And they will keep on buying those goods because they are cheap. Like I said TANSTAAFL!!
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Yes, but the thing is that tariffs are the sword that cuts two ways. You may cut your competitor, but you wind up cutting your own throat, too. I guess if the goods are cheap through such tactics as slave labor and state commanded prices, competitors must have some kind of tool to retaliate.
Everyone has to know that playing games for trade is not much different from going to war.
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