Here’s yet another open letter to the president of one of the three co-equal branches of the national government – co-equal, that is, at least according to that quaint document called “The Constitution of the United States of America.”
Mr. Donald J. Trump
President, Executive Branch
United States Government
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500Mr. Trump:
On Wednesday you bragged about “taking a lot of oil from Venezuela” (“Trump Brags He’s Taking ‘Billions of Barrels of Oil From Venezuela’ Because ‘To the Victor Belong the Spoils’,” August 5). Overlooking the unseemliness of an American official boasting of “taking” – that is, of stealing – other people’s property, I have an economics question for you. To wit: Because you and your lieutenants frequently allege that America’s industrial economy has been “hollowed out” by floods of cheap imports, isn’t the “hollowing out” about which you complain only furthered by your “taking” a major industrial output, petroleum? After all, to “take” something is to pay nothing for it; it’s to acquire that product at a price far below its market value.
If, as you claim, America’s economy is harmed by foreigners voluntarily offering to sell their outputs to Americans at low prices, isn’t America’s economy harmed even more by our taking some of those outputs at ‘prices’ lower than even the lowest ones that foreigners are willing to accept?
If not, why not? I’m quite interested in being enlightened by your clarification of this apparent inconsistency in your economic pronouncements.
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
