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Originally Posted by Robert Schunk
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tariffs are just how the consumer provides financial life support for a dying industry
they are an inefficient use of resources that makes everyone poorer: the consumer pays more for inferior goods, the government wastes the collected tariff in some boondoggle, the subsidized worker goes deeper into a hole that goes nowhere, smugglers break the law to bring the superior cheaper product to the consumer, etc.
mercantilism belongs to another era. protectionism is stupid. trade makes everyone richer.
im typing this on an ipad that has more power than the computers that sent the apollo 11 mission to the moon and it costs less than 300 bucks now. i can watch tv on it, play games, read and study, do some light work, communicate with the whole planet, access huge troves of information, etc.
not in 1000 lifetimes could i make this for myself alone.
trade and specialization and global economic integration are what makes this little miracle possible.
it’s not my income that matters so much, but what my income allows me to consume
i am infinitely richer than previous generations for this device alone.
i remember a ti e when people had to buy encyclopaedias haaaaa haaaaa haaaaa