[LewRockwell.com]
I have found over the years that when I debate with people who
promote tariffs, meaning sales taxes on imported goods that are enforced
by people with badges and guns, they always adopt arguments that apply
only to America's side of the border. They refuse to adopt those very
same arguments for people on the other side of the border.
I challenge defenders of tariffs to state their arguments in terms of
both of the people who want to trade, not just the American. The ethics
and economics of restricted trade surely apply to the person who wants
to trade on the other side of the invisible line known as a national
border. If the arguments for restricted trade apply to the American
economy, then surely they apply to the other nation's economy. Logic and
ethics do not change just because we cross an invisible judicial line. I
take this position because I want the pro-tariff person to face the
implications of his position.
Most people would never accuse
President Obama of memorizing Milton Friedman under the covers at
night. Yet the patron saint
of laissez-faire probably would not take as much
exception as many Republicans have to Obama’s comment
in Roanoke three weeks ago that “if you’ve got a business
– you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
