And historically, it has led to kinetic conflicts. The Trump Administration should be careful about how it architects economic policy at home and abroad.
All good points. I also appreciate the pragmatism that accompanies your strong principles. I'm in battle on the WSJ comments pages with those who unthinkingly accept Trump's tariffs as part of a package deal with other, better, policies of his.
"Tariffs instead of taxes" is problematic because what usually happens is Tariffs And Taxes. With the new emphasis on controlling government spending, we can hope that this time will be different. We shall see.
I think autarky is NOT unlimited protectionism. I think it is the perfect system for all human s everywhere. It is the system of individual self-government where one's own mind is one's sole government. It is not autocracy where one person rules everyone by force which could be unlimited protectionism. I've always thought tariffs were a bad idea except a retaliatory tariff against an initiatory one, with the retaliatory tariff ending precisely when the initiatory one did. Trade is none of government's business. It's sole duty is to protect the rights of citizens from criminals and traders are not criminals. All taxes and regulations on the innocent are crimes against humanity and should be treated as such. Organizations which tax and regulate are crime syndicates which have no right to exist. Rights do not come from 'creators' or from governments but are conditions required by the nature of humans as rational biological beings functioning in a social context. For a full treatment of the origin and nature of rights, read philosopher Ayn Rand's essay 'Man's Rights' which can be found in her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal".
Or the old statement - If goods don't cross borders, bullets will. Abolish both taxes and tariffs. Both are forms of extortion, one domestic and one foreign. Since all governments are organized crime syndicates that don't have a right to exist as such, who needs criminals for anything but criminals. They prey on the rest of us.
What about their debt? They had no right to enter into any form of debt in which they could forcibly obligate others to pay it off. And bond holders had no right to expect a profit from lending money to criminals in order to reduce their own tax costs as well. Just declare national insolvency as FDR had to do in 1933 and start over, this time as a truly free society.
I don't exactly know the difference, but the rights of every single human on the globe are precisely equal - the right to take any innocent actions they choose in the pursuit of their happiness. But not a single government anywhere will recognize and protect them. Voluntary trade between any 2 individuals is such an innocent act. I want everyone on the planet free to become the best they can be.
I'm an anarchist/voluntarist, so I agree on every person having dignity and natural human rights, and wanting everyone to exercise their freedom.
Globalization is the scaling up of potential trading partners to the world-wide scope. Globalism is a top-down, imposed order whose advocates want a common monopoly-violence institution (a.k.a. government) at the world-wide scope.
Thank you. By your definition, I am a globalist. I hate external governments of the innocent in any form. Controlling criminals is another matter. Everyone in every 'government' is a criminal and needs to be controlled and it is up to us innocents to figure out how to do that.
Controlling criminals makes you a criminal. Claiming a right to control others is exactly what an external government -- which we each hate -- does. As soon as the "innocents" become the controlling force, they cease to be innocent.
Coercive civil authority is inherently, intrinsically evil. It cannot be overthrown. It must be, as Max says, underthrown. Undermining/underthrowing governments is what folks like me (and you?) are always trying to figure out :-)
Right, but every innocent individual has a right to use force in defense against any criminal aggressor. Without this right, no other rights are possible. But 'governments' are organizations of criminals who live by preying on the innocent without any right to do so. We innocents have a right to organize into private rights protective associations like insurance and security companies by individual voluntary contracts.
Yes! If you're organizing voluntarily and for defensive purposes, then you haven't violated anyone else's natural human rights.
But it's a short hop from there to advocating premeditated violations for past (perceived) aggressions. Too many people don't actually know what "defense" means; they mistake it for "they got to be on offense for so long, so now we get to be on offense for a little while to make it 'fair'." Every revolutionary is a rabid authoritarian who's simply not yet in power. Your "innocents" -- who probably aren't so innocent, if you dig deeply enough -- will be the opposite of innocent if their goal is to overthrow and supplant.
You make some good points, but the chart on Comparative Advantage does not reflect the effects of trade war between China and America. The trade imbalance between our two countries is not fair competition. The reason China's goods are cheaper is because 1) China has fewer to no regulations than we have regarding pollution and worker safety, and 2) China has 16.6% of US average income and 5.6% of our rate of inflation (worlddata.info). The second point indicates that China YoY gains more from the difference in the cost of labor than we do.
All good points. I also appreciate the pragmatism that accompanies your strong principles. I'm in battle on the WSJ comments pages with those who unthinkingly accept Trump's tariffs as part of a package deal with other, better, policies of his.
"Tariffs instead of taxes" is problematic because what usually happens is Tariffs And Taxes. With the new emphasis on controlling government spending, we can hope that this time will be different. We shall see.
I think autarky is NOT unlimited protectionism. I think it is the perfect system for all human s everywhere. It is the system of individual self-government where one's own mind is one's sole government. It is not autocracy where one person rules everyone by force which could be unlimited protectionism. I've always thought tariffs were a bad idea except a retaliatory tariff against an initiatory one, with the retaliatory tariff ending precisely when the initiatory one did. Trade is none of government's business. It's sole duty is to protect the rights of citizens from criminals and traders are not criminals. All taxes and regulations on the innocent are crimes against humanity and should be treated as such. Organizations which tax and regulate are crime syndicates which have no right to exist. Rights do not come from 'creators' or from governments but are conditions required by the nature of humans as rational biological beings functioning in a social context. For a full treatment of the origin and nature of rights, read philosopher Ayn Rand's essay 'Man's Rights' which can be found in her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal".
Or the old statement - If goods don't cross borders, bullets will. Abolish both taxes and tariffs. Both are forms of extortion, one domestic and one foreign. Since all governments are organized crime syndicates that don't have a right to exist as such, who needs criminals for anything but criminals. They prey on the rest of us.
What about their debt? They had no right to enter into any form of debt in which they could forcibly obligate others to pay it off. And bond holders had no right to expect a profit from lending money to criminals in order to reduce their own tax costs as well. Just declare national insolvency as FDR had to do in 1933 and start over, this time as a truly free society.
Amen.
> Remember, globalization is not globalism.
I've encountered too many people who conflate those.
I don't exactly know the difference, but the rights of every single human on the globe are precisely equal - the right to take any innocent actions they choose in the pursuit of their happiness. But not a single government anywhere will recognize and protect them. Voluntary trade between any 2 individuals is such an innocent act. I want everyone on the planet free to become the best they can be.
I'm an anarchist/voluntarist, so I agree on every person having dignity and natural human rights, and wanting everyone to exercise their freedom.
Globalization is the scaling up of potential trading partners to the world-wide scope. Globalism is a top-down, imposed order whose advocates want a common monopoly-violence institution (a.k.a. government) at the world-wide scope.
Thank you. By your definition, I am a globalist. I hate external governments of the innocent in any form. Controlling criminals is another matter. Everyone in every 'government' is a criminal and needs to be controlled and it is up to us innocents to figure out how to do that.
> I hate external governments
So do I.
> Controlling criminals is another matter.
Controlling criminals makes you a criminal. Claiming a right to control others is exactly what an external government -- which we each hate -- does. As soon as the "innocents" become the controlling force, they cease to be innocent.
Coercive civil authority is inherently, intrinsically evil. It cannot be overthrown. It must be, as Max says, underthrown. Undermining/underthrowing governments is what folks like me (and you?) are always trying to figure out :-)
Right, but every innocent individual has a right to use force in defense against any criminal aggressor. Without this right, no other rights are possible. But 'governments' are organizations of criminals who live by preying on the innocent without any right to do so. We innocents have a right to organize into private rights protective associations like insurance and security companies by individual voluntary contracts.
Yes! If you're organizing voluntarily and for defensive purposes, then you haven't violated anyone else's natural human rights.
But it's a short hop from there to advocating premeditated violations for past (perceived) aggressions. Too many people don't actually know what "defense" means; they mistake it for "they got to be on offense for so long, so now we get to be on offense for a little while to make it 'fair'." Every revolutionary is a rabid authoritarian who's simply not yet in power. Your "innocents" -- who probably aren't so innocent, if you dig deeply enough -- will be the opposite of innocent if their goal is to overthrow and supplant.
You make some good points, but the chart on Comparative Advantage does not reflect the effects of trade war between China and America. The trade imbalance between our two countries is not fair competition. The reason China's goods are cheaper is because 1) China has fewer to no regulations than we have regarding pollution and worker safety, and 2) China has 16.6% of US average income and 5.6% of our rate of inflation (worlddata.info). The second point indicates that China YoY gains more from the difference in the cost of labor than we do.
Interesting notes on this timely topic! One small typo, I think: it says 'constripted' and I think you meant 'conscripted'.
Stay wonderful!
Chris.
Yikes! Thanks Chris