Here’s a letter to commenter at my Facebook page.
Mr. Seligman:
On Facebook you suggested that the end result of a policy of free trade would be “not making anything in the US.” After I and other commenters pointed out that the U.S. is today – contrary to popular belief – an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse, you responded by telling us how much steel and pharmaceutical products are produced abroad. You concluded your response by insisting that we are the ones who deploy “sloppy reasoning.”
With respect, the sloppy reasoning is yours.
For example, you offer the fact that “China produced roughly 12.6 times more steel than the US in 2024” as prima facie evidence that free trade is failing the U.S. Can you tell us what is the proper proportion of Chinese steel production to U.S. steel production? Of course you can’t; you can only express your gut feeling that China produces too much more steel than does the U.S. – which prompts me to ask: Why should anyone, including you, trust your gut?
U.S. petroleum production is more than four times as great as China’s petroleum production (2024); U.S. soybean production is almost five times greater than that of China’s soybean production (2024); the value of the U.S. medical-device market is more than three times that of China’s medical-device market (2024); total U.S. expenditures on research and development are nearly double those of China’s expenditures on R&D (2022). (It’s worth noting, by the way, that on a per-capita basis, U.S. manufacturing output is double that of China’s manufacturing output.)
U.S. defense spending is more than three times higher than that of China (2024).
Were the U.S. to produce more steel and pharmaceutical products, the U.S. must produce less than otherwise of other goods and services. In your estimation, which of the above do we Americans produce too much of? Should we produce less crude oil? Fewer metric tons of soybeans? Perhaps we have an overgrown medical-device sector or we spend too much on R&D or on defense? Which of these sectors (and others) do you feel are acceptable to shrink in order to use tariffs to increase U.S. output of steel and pharmaceutical products?
Until and unless you can substantively answer these questions, your case for more protectionism is, well, sloppy.
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
