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A simple sentence on pages 155-156 of Douglas Irwin’s monumental 2017 book, Clashing Over Commerce [2], tells a familiar public-choice [3] truth:
The growth of manufacturing and relative decline of shipping and shipbuilding in New England [after the War of 1812] helped turn the region from one supporting open trade to one supporting protective tariffs, although its representatives were often divided depending on their particular constituency.
Government panders to producer groups; government is no agency guided by science to maximize social welfare, to bring about Pareto optimality, or to otherwise promote the general welfare. (See again today’s Quotation of the Day [4].)