Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
Editor:
Aluminum-industry lobbyist Mark Duffy’s case for tariffs on aluminum is weak (Letters, September 14).
He trumpets a reality that no tariff opponent denies, namely, that tariffs might spur investment and job creation in U.S. metals industries. But he ignores one of the core arguments against protectionism, which is that that investment and those jobs come at the expense of other sectors of the U.S. economy. By using tariffs to artificially direct capital and resources into U.S. metals production, which American industries shrink and which American jobs are destroyed? By ignoring this key question, Mr. Duffy reveals his unseriousness about countering the case against tariffs.
Mr. Duffy then doubles down on his unseriousness by asserting that “U.S. aluminum producers adhere to free-market principles.” Were these producers true adherents of free-market principles, they’d not demand special privileges from government – special privileges rooted in restricting Americans’ freedom to spend their incomes as they, not the government, deem best.
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
