… is from page 89 of Pierre Lemieux’s superb 2018 monograph, What’s Wrong With Protectionism?:
It should be fairly obvious by now that the common objections to free trade are without economic foundations. They ultimately rest on a nationalist and interventionist ideology that is inconsistent not only with sound economics but also … with the traditional and very American value of individual liberty.
DBx: Protectionism shackles peaceful people, and then assures its victims that their shackles are essential to their freedom and prosperity. Protectionism violates basic human rights. And protectionism violates human rights for the contemptible purpose of artificially enriching, at the larger expense of the public, politically powerful producer groups.
