… is from page 168 of Dwight Lee’s and Richard McKenzie’s 1987 book, Regulating Government:
Tariffs blot out foreign competition, giving the protected industries opportunities to raise their prices and make more money. In their impact, the higher prices have much the same effect on consumer purchasing power as a direct tax increase on personal income. The greater incomes received by workers, owners, and suppliers of the protected industries are categorically the same as welfare transfers such as checks distributed to low-income mothers with children. Incomes in the protected industries are greater than what could have been earned in a free market; they are the consequence of forced shifts in purchasing power.
DBx: Few experiences are as galling as encountering ‘conservatives’ who oppose the welfare state and simultaneously support protectionism. Such hypocrisy is insufferable. And few experiences are as maddening as encountering “Progressives” who, believing that ‘the poor’ are short-changed and made helpless by the free market, support the welfare state and simultaneously support protectionism. Such ignorance is inexcusable.