Originally posted by Blindside12
Weird, air quality keeps getting better in the US despite the unending "Trump, the sky is falling!" Comments from the ignorant.
Yeah, and that's due in large part to the EPA regulations implemented in the 70s-90s period. Trump is moving to defang and disband that agency, by the way.
Originally posted by cdtm
Emperordmb:Do liberals generally support protectionism? (In general. Not a criticism of your own beliefs.)
The way I see it, the environment is important to leftists. But so is poverty.
Imports contribute to poverty by taking away work that can be done locally.
Therefore, many leftists should support protectionism, because it helps reduce poverty.
No, this isn't right. Tariffs increase poverty by making prices higher for consumers, the most active of which are the poor. Jobs saved in noncompetitive industries do not make up for that, and there is evidence that tariffs actually cost more jobs than they save. For example, Obama in 2009 implemented tariffs to protect domestic producers of tires from cheap imports, like Trump is doing currently with a far broader range of products. And now? Even liberal outlets like CNN are ready to denounce it as economically harmful, due to a study by the Peterson Insitute of International Economics, which showed that the move lost more jobs than it saved and hurt the economy.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/03/news/economy/obama-china-tire-tariff/index.html
President Obama slapped a stiff 35% tariff on Chinese tires in 2009 after American companies complained about unfair competition. They said China was flooding America with tires at low prices making it tough for U.S. companies to compete. The tire tariff gradually waned, and finally ended in 2012.The tariff saved 1,200 U.S. tire jobs, which had been in sharp decline. And U.S. tire production rose after a major decline.
"Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires," Obama said in his 2012 State of the Union address.
But a study from the Peterson Institute of International Economics found that the tariffs cost Americans in many other ways.
Americans paid more for tires. Some Chinese-made tires cost as much as 26% more -- rising on average to $39 per tire, from about $31. And U.S. tire makers, facing less competition from China, also raised prices on American-made tires 3.2%.
According to Peterson's model, higher prices from the tire tariff cost Americans an extra $1.1 billion, which translated to an estimated 3,731 retail jobs lost.
Plus, China fought back by imposing penalties on U.S. shipments of chicken parts. The Peterson study estimates that China's retaliation cost American chicken producers $1 billion in sales.
This would explain why Obama became more pro-free trade as his term went on. For although there can be negative effects on some sectors from free trade, those can be offset by the economic growth produced and by targeted government action. Protectionism and tariffs are not the way to go, and Trump is ignoring lessons of the past.