Quotation of the Day…

Tweet

… is from page 177 of my colleague Walter Williams’s January 1998 column titled “Free Trade versus Fair Trade” as this column is titled and reprinted in a 1999 collection, More Liberty Means Less Government, of several of Walter’s columns:

How about tariffs saving jobs? That’s kind of true, but they’re saved at the expense of other jobs. Steel-tariff restrictions might save jobs for steelworkers, but they destroy other jobs. Steel tariffs raise steel prices. Thus, steel-using companies – like tractor, refrigerator, and car manufacturers – face higher production costs. Higher costs weaken their ability to compete both domestically and internationally. Politicians love this. Steelworker beneficiaries of tariffs will be eternally grateful and know whom to vote for. The invisible victims in steel-using industries won’t know why they are unemployed.