True a tariff is a tax on the people.
Sometimes the defender of tariffs against slave laborers will use the example of China. This has to be one of the dumbest arguments in the history of economic reasoning. I agree
I do not defend protectionist tariffs, I am interested in a general tariff to help replace the income tax. If we had no income tax I would not be in favor of any tariff
During the period in which China was under the rule of Comrade Mao, it had virtually no foreign trade. It had no products that could find markets in the West. The nation could barely feed itself. In some time periods, it could not feed itself. It had nothing of value to export. It had no foreign exchange reserves. It had no large-scale industrial production at all. It was a Third World nation. The only thing it could produce in
large quantities was weaponry. It did not export anything to the West.
The reason that China had "virtually no foreign trade" was it was restricted form world markets it could only trade with communist block nations. This problem was a freedom issue not related to tariffs it also did not have a free society that could produce and trade at will. If you recall the original problem with China was it would not trade, It had all the products we wanted and It would not trade with the west.
Today, China is a major competitor in Western markets. Its economy is basically Keynesian. Its workers can move wherever they want. We are seeing the largest migration in the history of man from rural poverty to urban middle-class living. Hundreds of millions of people have moved from the rural countryside to large cities. This is not slave labor; this is free labor. There are no government restrictions on the movement of laborers. There are very few government restrictions on hiring these workers. There is almost no social welfare system imposed by the state. The Chinese labor market is vastly freer than labor markets in the West, which are dominated by trade unions that have gotten government support, meaning the threat of violence, to support the demands of union members. This is one of the reasons why Western manufacturers are having so much trouble competing against Chinese workers.
Labor conditions in China are very different than they are in the west, rates are much lower, it is a state run capitalism. In order for me to go to China and take advantage of the cheap labor I would need to have a party member be my partner. It is not a free society it has no unions because its against the law. Party members are the ones that profit not the people, and the people will have a difficult time making more than what they earn now.
Chinese workers are free to move from job to job, and Chinese employers are legally allowed to hire anyone they want. Under these conditions, it is the Western workers who are closer to slavery than Chinese workers are. Can they leave the country ? Can they move to the states? China is a restricted market you don't build a factory if you are not a loyal party member.
Western workers who are not trade union members in Western Europe are forced to take less desirable jobs, because labor union members have locked out competition from nonunion workers. Unions have used the government to send out people with badges and guns to prohibit employers from hiring nonunion workers. This is not the free market; this is a government-rigged market.
Police historically have been used to fight unions, If there are cases where police are used in support of unions its rare. Freedom is key, freedom to organize a union and freedom to work, both. I do not agree with obligating anyone to join a union. In China you are not free to organize, and we will eventually reach a social equilibrium, either they will be more free or we will be less free.
So, the next time you hear someone argue that Western workers need to be protected against foreign goods produced by slave labor, point out to him that the reason why Western workers want protection is because they are the slave laborers. They are finding it increasingly difficult to compete against workers who live in a nation that honors the principle of the free mobility of labor and voluntary contracts between employers and employees. China is a fierce competitor, not because it is a slave labor society, but because it is competing against workers who live in a regime of government-rigged labor markets.
It is difficult to see how one could argue that China is not a "government ridged labor market" labor has no voice. I do not advocate tariffs to protect us from China's labor, only as a replacement for the income tax. We will benefit from the cheap labor of China and the rest of the third world, and free trade will create upward pressure on wages in China that will ultimately help the people of China.
I think that all nations should fund government expenses with anything except an income tax.
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