… is from page 47 of the original edition of the Harvard economist Frank Taussig’s 1915 volume, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question:
The gain which a country secures from its labor is largest when that labor is applied in the most effective way; and labor is applied with the greatest effectiveness only when it proves this effectiveness by sustained ability to hold the field constantly against all rivals.
DBx: The typical protectionist, although he boasts of his pride in his country, in fact holds his country in low regard; he’s actually ashamed of it. Although he might genuinely love his country, the protectionist nevertheless is convinced that his fellow citizens are either incapable of spending their money wisely, or that they’re unwilling to do so. The protectionist worries that, when left free, his fellow citizens behave as “denuded” consumers. They consume excessively, frivolously, stupidly. They save too little. And they fund their frivolity by selling off their assets to foreigners or by borrowing from foreigners.
The protectionist is also convinced that his fellow citizens are inert, inflexible, and have no gumption or ingenuity. When a fellow citizen who works, say, at a lumberyard or in a textile factory loses her job, the protectionist assumes that there is no other way for that person to earn a living. The protectionist has no confidence that any other fellow citizen can or will find new ways to employ that worker.
The protectionist’s opinion of his fellow citizens’ abilities as consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs is in the ditch. In the protectionist’s mind, his fellow citizens have very limited economic competence.
The protectionist, however, has enormous respect for foreigners. Foreigners, as the protectionist assesses them, are cunning, disciplined, far-sighted, and much smarter and more responsible and entrepreneurial than are the protectionist’s fellow citizens. The protectionist just knows in his bones that in too many of the government-unregulated and untaxed exchanges that his fellow citizens have with foreigners, his fellow citizens get duped. Worse, his fellow citizens foolishly continue to allow themselves to be duped by foreigners until the protectionist takes hold of the reins of government to use it to protect his beloved, but infantile, fellow citizens both from their own weaknesses and from the wiles of much more able foreigners.
The protectionist and his comrades in opposition to free trade are alone in their economic understanding and maturity. Only they, among everyone in the country, are sober, serious, responsible, far-seeing, and wise. Or so they fancy themselves.
What a pity for the protectionist that fate has condemned him to live amongst such fatuous dolts.
