Tweet [1]
… is from page 612 of Book IV, Chapter vii [2] of the 1981 Liberty Fund edition [3] of Adam Smith’s magisterial 1776 book, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [4]:
To promote the little interest of one little order of men in one country, it [protectionism] hurts the interest of all other orders of men in that country, and of all men in all other countries.
Jason Brennan points out that, for example, Bernie Sanders is blind – or indifferent to – this truth [5]. (And I believe that Donald Trump likely reckons this insidious and cruel feature of protectionism to be one of its chief merits.)