Within a week’s time, protectionists claim that tariffs will generate more tax revenue (including the absurd claim that the tax revenue will be paid by foreign exporters), protect and/or repatriate manufacturing jobs to American shores, punish trading partners who don’t “play by the rules”, make America more self-sufficient in key industries, and not cause prices to rise. Whew! That’s quite a lot of promises, and they conflict with one another. For example, will tariffs generate tax revenue or cause production to be repatriated to America? You can’t have it both ways.
Probably the most galling claim is that the protectionists want to force the rest of the population to buy only American products in order to benefit stockholders and workers in key industries. There is no recognition that this claim cannot be fulfilled unless whatever benefit accrues to key industries must come at the expense of everyone else. In other words, protectionists tout the concentration of benefits and keep quiet about the diffusion of cost. But the costs are there, even if widely diffused. Protectionism really isn’t a theory of betterment for all but a claim that certain people in certain occupations are special. They must be paid more handsomely than the market, meaning you and me, wishes to pay.
~ Patrick Barron, "The Protectionists Have No Theory," Going Postal, June 5, 2025
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