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… is from chapter 4 of William Graham Sumner’s 1885 book, Protectionism: the -ism Which Teaches that Waste Makes Wealth [2]:
It is argued that hardship disciplines a man and is good for him; hence, that the free-traders, who want people to do what is easiest, would corrupt them, and that protectionists, by “making work,” bring in salutary discipline for the people. This is the effect upon those who pay the taxes. The counter operation on the beneficiaries of the system I have never seen developed.
DBx: By protecting some domestic producers from foreign competition, the state does indeed make easier the lives of these firms’ owners, investors, and workers and other suppliers. It does so by artificially increasing the burdens that others in the country must bear.