Applies to protectionism
Today, on his Cafe Hayak blog, Don Baudlow gave a great quote from William Graham Sumner’s book. This book is entitled Protectionism. This book is available for free access on the Liberty Fund website.
Here’s the quote:
If, now, according to the idea of protectionists, it was possible to respect the legal scheme that should be the taxable jacket suitable for this country today, how long would it fit? It’s not a week. This has 55 million people on 3.5 million square miles of land. Every day, new lines of communication are opened, new discoveries are made, new inventions are generated, new matrices are applied, industrial systems are recognized as constantly changing and changing. If the correct system of protection taxes was always viable, Congress can keep up with the necessary changes and reads. The concept is ridiculous and monster.
That insight reminded me of Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia section entitled “How to Disrupt the Pattern of Liberty.” Nozick points out that if the distributor gets an Ey Way and it has the ideal amount he or she should have (ideal based on their standards), this won’t last long. Subpeople start spending money by watching Wilt Chamberlain, for example, playing basketball. In fact, many people do this. As a result, Wilt Chamberlain becomes rich and there is no first distribution he has been allowed to. And the total of people paying to watch him play basketball would be less than the initial ideal distribution.
In short, Liberty confuses the pattern.
Similarly, let’s say Trump is on his own path. And we have an ideal trade balance with each country. (That was Haage’s assumption, and Trump wants a zero trade balance with each country. This would require a reduction in foreign investment in the US or an increase in investment in other countries in the US.
Currently, Sumanon in the US wants to buy more clothing from Vietnam. He wears it and others notice it and want to buy more. Within a few months, the balance of trade with Vietnam will become negative. We buy more from them than they buy from us.
it doesn’t matter. But for living arrangements like Donald Trump, that’s a problem.
Liberty disrupts patterns involving trade balances.
