re: Protectionism vs. Free Trade

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Free Trade is ideal when the trade is actually free Trade.

NAFTA is not free Trade because both Mexico and Canada have a VAT.

So their goods come in to us tax free but our goods get taxed.

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The world will never know free trade as long as the United States is spending more than the next 26 industrialized nations on the security of the world. That is not in any manner a level playing field. The US is much more benevolent in its protection than either China or Russia will ever be. Tariffs are a horrible idea EXCEPT when you consider that we are subsidizing the world's manufacturers at the expense of our own.

We don't need tariffs, although they will be much more politically acceptable even to those nations on which they are imposed...what we need is to tell the world that they are on their own as far as securing markets and transport of their capital and goods.

We are not going to do that by increasing military spending because the world will see it for what it is...empty rhetoric.

What does Friedman have to say about the benefits of imperialism to those nations not involved in building and maintaining an empire? Not a fricking word...and thus his views of economics are not applicable to the world in it's current reality. There is no way...none...not a chance in the world...that GM, Ford and Chrysler, just to name a few, would have more than token competition in the world if it weren't for the US Military ensuring global security and secure markets. Damn a tariff what about simply ending the subsidies and doing so in a fashion that leaves no doubt in anyone's mind that they are on their own...all of a sudden the only place to build a car is in Michigan....