Protectionism and Tea
A Tea Party is coming to Danville. The Commercial News this morning reported that one is being planned to occur a week from Saturday at Lincoln Park. This news obviously got me very excited, so I promptly turned to Facebook to learn more about the organizing group. I was happy to see their mission statement as " Reduced Government, Reduced wasteful spending, Reduced taxation." But then on further examination found that not only are they organizing this tea party at Lincoln Park to advocate these very worthy goals, but also seem to be pleging support and attendence at a Labor Day parade in Westville on Sept.7th with the theme: "Protect U.S. Jobs - Buy American".
The philosophical inconsistency is staggering. There is simply no honest way one can simultaneously be for small government and reduced taxation and burdens on free enterprise, and then advocate protectionist measures with a cry of "buy American".
I feel really disappointed about this. I thought those in the Tea Party movement were educated about the fundamentals of economics, unlike the leaders who have gotten us into these messes.
Telling people to "Buy American" doesn't protect jobs in the U.S. and more often has reverse effects. It is, to say the LEAST, extremely ignorant of how free enterprise works. Boy am I disappointed to see this. It really hurts the cause, because it is not philosophically consistent with freedom and liberty, as it requires Big Government to step in and slap on tarrifs on foriegn goods, subsidize domestics goods, and generally interfer with market forces, causing horrible distortions that hurt us all in the grand scheme of things.
Here is not the place to fully explain how "Buying American" is anti-free market, but here is a great 10 min. video for people interested in learning a little more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWQ_UV-9Wb4
And for an even better, more in-depth explaination, go here:
http://mises.org/rothbard/protectionism.asp
The philosophical inconsistency is staggering. There is simply no honest way one can simultaneously be for small government and reduced taxation and burdens on free enterprise, and then advocate protectionist measures with a cry of "buy American".
I feel really disappointed about this. I thought those in the Tea Party movement were educated about the fundamentals of economics, unlike the leaders who have gotten us into these messes.
Telling people to "Buy American" doesn't protect jobs in the U.S. and more often has reverse effects. It is, to say the LEAST, extremely ignorant of how free enterprise works. Boy am I disappointed to see this. It really hurts the cause, because it is not philosophically consistent with freedom and liberty, as it requires Big Government to step in and slap on tarrifs on foriegn goods, subsidize domestics goods, and generally interfer with market forces, causing horrible distortions that hurt us all in the grand scheme of things.
Here is not the place to fully explain how "Buying American" is anti-free market, but here is a great 10 min. video for people interested in learning a little more:
http://www.youtube.com/wat
And for an even better, more in-depth explaination, go here:
http://mises.org/rothbard/
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