Tariffs Are Immoral and Insane, Mr. Trump

Tariff proponents are complicit in immoral individual rights violating insanity.

Really, another article on tariffs? Yes, really. As long as POTUS insists on sowing chaos by using them as part of his “toolbox” there is no way around it. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" is an astute observation (with uncertain origins). We’re in this territory now. History is conclusive: tariffs don’t work as evidenced by hundreds of years of mercantilist stagnation and, more recently, the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act which prolonged and made more severe the Great Depression and, one may argue, contributed to the start of WWII. That tariffs have obvious negative practical consequences is a view shared by economists of all ideological persuasions (unless they have become recent Trumpian sycophants). Even the president’s 1^st term economic advisor Stephen Moore seems dumbfounded.

No, I don’t think Mr. Trump is insane, but his claims that “Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,’’ that “Tariffs are about making America rich again,” and the fact that he seems to have loved them since long before he became a Republican, certainly puts him on the watchlist. Why is he doing it? Ignorance may explain some of it, but I think Jonah Goldberg comes closest to the truth when he writes

[Tariffs] generate chaos that allows him to ‘save’ individual businesses from the very chaos he creates. They keep him at the center of not just politics but economics, too. They incentivize business to make placating, pleasing or rewarding Trump crucial to their bottom lines.

Which makes perfect sense for a man who needs constant validation of his pseudo self-esteem induced “greatness.”

However, while the practical negative impacts of tariffs are well documented, the moral dimension has not received enough attention. In an excellent article for The Objective Standard, "Trump’s Tariff’s: Immoral, Indefensible and Illiberal,” Nicholas Provenzo not only debunks the pro-tariff arguments, but also exposes their immorality:

Tariffs don’t just hurt your wallet—they violate your freedom. They reduce your access to the best goods at market prices, forcing you to enrich politically connected industries while limiting your ability to act in your rational self-interest.

At stake here are your rights—including your right to produce, trade, and keep the rewards of your work. A free economy enables you to act in your self-interest without political interference. Tariffs violate this principle by forcibly limiting your choices and making it harder (or impossible) to purchase goods that best meet your needs—and to freely produce and trade your goods.

The next time a politician defends tariffs as a way to “help” America, ask yourself: Who, exactly, is being helped? Not the consumer, who is forced to pay more. Not the honest businessman, who is fully capable of creating value without such “help.” Not the entrepreneur, who is denied access to affordable materials. The only ones who “benefit” are those who have successfully lobbied the government to rig the game in their favor and politicians who get reelected for peddling economic nationalism as a substitute for improving human flourishing. And in the long run, even these people suffer from a weaker economy, deprived of the wealth, innovation, and opportunities that tariffs stifle.

The only morally justifiable trade policy for a free society is free trade—trade without interference, without coercion, and without government picking winners and losers. The question before us is simple: Do we want a society in which individuals are free to trade and prosper, or do we want a society in which bureaucrats dictate the terms of economic exchange? If we value liberty, the answer is clear. Tariffs must be abolished because they are an affront to the fundamental principle of human freedom—and that is why they fail in practice.

Read the whole thing.

Tariffs are immoral because they violate your individual rights as producer, trader, and consumer. If other countries impose tariffs on U.S. goods and services, they violate the individual rights of U.S. residents who are prevented from trading freely (buying and selling) with their foreign counterparts. And they violate the individual rights of their own residents who are forced to pay a higher price for U.S. products.

As part of a rational U.S. foreign policy, we may put pressure on other countries to remove their individual rights violating tariffs. We may even make it a condition for joining a U.S. led military alliance. But it’s immoral for the U.S. to reciprocate with tariffs of our own as it reduces the respect for and protection of individual rights here at home. You don’t fight immorality with more immorality. As economic growth takes off in a no-tariffs America, other countries will eventually realize the folly of choking their prospects for human flourishing by having tariffs of their own.

Whether you’re a friend or foe of Mr. Trump, you owe it to yourself to speak up against tariffs. If not, you may be complicit in a repeat of the immoral policies of the 1930’s, an outcome that certainly would meet the definition of insanity.