Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed voice of American working people, has decreed that the prices of washing machines and solar panels shall rise. Trump’s decree, placing tariffs (taxes) on imported versions of those goods, will impose higher costs on consumers to help (in the short run) the minority of Americans who work in those industries. That’s how protectionism works—a favored group of firms and workers benefits at the expense of everyone else.
Trump calls this “America First,” writes Sheldon Richman. In fact, it’s naked special-interest policymaking. The American Firster Trump is coddling wimpy, whining firms that are better at lobbying than competing in the marketplace.
The mindset that leads Trump to save firms and industries that can’t compete is a call for stagnation and decline, argues Richman. Free people buying and selling in free markets should determine what is produced.
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