Precious Tariffs

This simple article set my Mind to work today. It may be that I had one of my Four per Year no-sleep nights last night, where I cannot get my brain to shut down. Still, I am one of the few friends of Tariffs existent in the World under present circumstances; with a profound belief that Tariffs are simple economic instruments useful for controlling adverse economic forces in Production. A adverse economic force would be the hard Chinese peg of their Currency to the Dollar, guaranteed to ensure American labor will never shift back down to increase semi-skilled American Wages. I could cite several other adverse economic forces which could be countered by tariffs, but I would somehow lose the thread of my argument in minutiae. It is enough to say that if Chinese labor made one dollars an hour more, or American semi-skilled Labor made about one dollar an hour less, then about 10 million Hours of semi-skilled labor could switch from China to the U.S. A $2/Hour reversal could well induce 30 million hours of semi-skilled labor done in the U.S.

Here is an incentive for tariffs, which is heresy for current Economists. Recognize these are all my calculations (always deemed wrong by the economic community), but I suggest that around 8% of American Health Care Costs would be paid by 30 million hours of semi-skilled labor, and Welfare payments could be reduced by 19-20%. Remember that I was always fuzzy with Math, and am currently operating in a No-Parking Zone. One can recognize the direction of my Thought, even if my Estimates are not worth horse hockey. Economists still scream about the great damage to Comparative Advantage.

One has to ask whether Comparative Advantage can possibly affect more than ten percent of the Economy of any industrialized nation. There are the Products which must be produced domestically, as they require geographical placement and maintenance in Our economy. There are the Products where We enjoy a Comparative Advantage in Production, so as to ensure domestic consumption. There are those Products which induce the same or similar Production Costs no matter where they are produced; Trade is solely competitive in nature without natural Savings. There are those Products which are not differentiated in Production Cost across Country, but simply traded at lower Profit per unit to generate foreign credits for necessary Product purchases. Transportation Costs are almost never introduced into Comparative Advantage by Economists, who like to attribute such Transportation capitalization as economic growth. There is not that much Trade out there that actually consists of Comparative Advantage.

I would adopt a radical approach, reevaluate the Dollar Gains of Comparative Advantage, and abrogate all multinational Trade treaties. Appeasement of Our Trading partners, at least some of them, would be a careful, thought-out systems of tariffs, and a Statement that all Funds derived from such tariffs would be devoted to Developmental Aid to the Third World. Then I would advance, and begin to correct the Trade imbalances incurred by the Free Trade policy philosophy. It is a perfect time, as Agricultural Product Exports are going to decline with the present dedication of Corn supplies to Ethanol production. lgl