Listen to Ryan McMaken’s commentary on the Radio Rothbard podcast.
One of the reasons that Donald Trump gives for slapping new protectionist tariffs on steel and aluminum is that it will create manufacturing jobs, and by extension, greatly enhance income growth and standards of living in the United States.
Marx assumed that “interests” were independent of human ideas and thoughts. He said that socialism was the ideal system for the proletariat. He said class interests determine the thinking of individuals and that this situation causes irreconcilable conflicts between the various classes. Marx then returned to the point at which he had started—namely, that socialism is the ideal state.
One of the great controversies in modern society concerns the necessary and required functions of government. There are few who disagree that if government is to exist then it certainly has the duty and responsibility to secure and protect essential rights of every individual, including the right to life, liberty and honestly acquired property. But there are a wide variety of tasks that the private sector could better provide that many think must be supplied by the government.
When politicians run out of good arguments, their last refuge is often the claim that what they want is “necessary for national defense.”
Given that there are no good economic arguments in favor of tariffs, it makes sense that the administration has now resorted to the political “national defense” argument instead.
The presidency of Donald Trump continues to be an unpredictable one, with the latest twist being his announced plans to meet with North Korean despot Kim Jong-Un. Naturally the reaction from the beltway and the media was to condemn this diplomatic outreach. Rachel Maddow perhaps did the best job as establishment media mouth piece, pointing out that Trump’s decision goes against a policy that has long enjoyed bipartisan support - a label which in DC is used to demonstrate clear intellectual superiority:
Independence movements in Latin America and the United States have generated interesting discussions in historical circles over the past two centuries. Both wars of independence featured colonists in the New World revolting against their European overlords, eventually leading to the creation of new nation-states. Yet since then, the results in these two region’s levels of economic prosperity and political stability have diverged considerably.
What could explain such differences in overall economic and political outcomes?
Last Thursday, US President Donald Trump, signed an executive order to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports — of 10 percent and 25 percent respectively — exempting Canada and Mexico. In large part, the that protectionist measure is in response against the phenomena of “dumping,” in which it is believed that some regimes — specifically the Chinese — are subsidizing steel exports.
