Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:
Editor:
Don Bonker rightly criticizes the Trump administration’s tariffs (“On Trade, Where Are My Fellow Democrats?” May 22). But he wrongly endorses government efforts to increase Americans’ exports.
Just as Uncle Sam makes us poorer by taxing us to artificially decrease the quantities of goods and services that we acquire from foreigners, it makes us poorer by taxing us to artificially increase the quantities of goods and services that we ship to foreigners.
How about simply leaving each of us Americans free to trade, with our own money, as each of us chooses?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
