Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 45 of Milton & Rose Friedman’s great 1980 book, Free To Choose:

Another source of “unfair competition” is said to be subsidies by foreign governments to their producers that enable them to sell in the United States below cost. Suppose a foreign government gives such subsidies, as no doubt some do. Who is hurt and who benefits? To pay for the subsidies the foreign government must tax its citizens. They are the ones who pay for the subsidies. U.S. consumers benefit. They get cheap TV sets or automobiles or whatever it is that is subsidized. Should we complain about such a program of reverse foreign aid? Was it noble of the United States to send goods and services as gifts to other countries in the form of Marshal Plan aid or, later, foreign aid, but ignoble for foreign countries to send us gifts in the indirect form of goods and services sold to us below cost? The citizens of the foreign government might well complain. They must suffer a lower standard of living for the benefit of American consumers and of some of their fellow citizens who who own or work in the industries that are subsidized.

DBx: Yes.

It cannot be said too often that if you are truly a believer in “America First!,” you should – in addition to applauding rising U.S. trade deficits, which represent foreigners investing disproportionately in America rather than elsewhere – welcome foreigners’ selling to us Americans goods at prices below cost.