… is this comment today on my Facebook page by my emeritus Nobel-laureate colleague, Vernon Smith:
To interfere with those rights to choose with tariffs and subsides is to deny the right of all to the wealth creating benefits of a system disciplined by such choices.
DBx: Yes. Tariffs are not only economically destructive, they are also morally offensive. No producer or merchant has a right to your income merely because that producer or merchant is your fellow citizen – or because that producer or merchant has convinced some government officials to favor him or her with protection.
If a manager of a Taco Bell franchise hires a gang of thugs to obstruct the ability of consumers to enter the premises of Chick-fil-A, we would rightly regard that Taco Bell manager, and the thugs he hires, to be criminal. And we would not change our assessment even if we were presented with unambiguous proof that the thugs’ efforts result in Taco Bell employing more workers at higher wages.
Protective tariffs are in essence no different from the actions of this hypothetical Taco Bell manager and his thuggish hirelings.
