PrintSmith wrote: "No 'progressive' alternative to the logic of the argument, so the discussion devolves into attacking the person using reason and logic in the argument instead of emotion."
This has to be one of the most confusing arguments I've seen to date. The discussion devolves into using reason and logic? Since when was using emotion a higher form of debate and argument? Just blows me away....
See? Here's where I'm confused, PrintSmith, you've been trying to make the argument that increasing tariffs on imported goods will raise the price of those imported goods, and you've tried to make the argument an emotional one by saying it will hurt the welfare mom, but you haven't taken into account or even acknowledged that the reason for raising tariffs is to make the domestically produced goods competitively priced and that in turn will revitalize the jobs necessary to make those goods and hence the economy.
Think about it this way.
1)We have more consumers than manufacturing jobs in this country, so consumers will suffer more than manufacturing will.
2) Tariffs used to be fought regionally, New England wanted tarriffs for manufactured goods since they had factories and wanted to protect their industrial base from England. They didn't want any tariffs on raw material because they didn't want the cost of their goods to rise. Meanwhile the South wanted raw material quotas so they didn't have to compete with cheap Egyptian cotton. Who do you let win on this point?
3) Certain countries have inherent advantages in certain goods production.
It makes no sense for Canada to charge a high tariff on sugar cane imports when local farmers would be unable to grow sugar cane at a reasonable price.
4) So charging a onerous tariff on foreign computers and smart phone imports might help some small domestic manufacturers but it would hurt most American businesses because the cost of their products would go up.
Trivia Time: Once the American goverment made more on import duties than income taxes. Easier to collect and people can control their level of taxation by refusing to buy imported material.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
