Thought experiment to show why protectionism damages the economy

[acptulsa]

CaptUSA: “Just leave people free to decide for themselves how and with whom they spend their hard earned money. That’s called freedom.”

Swordy: “No! I (or my duely elected govt agents) get to decide who they may purchase from and how much, and if they try to circumvent these rules we get to send armed thugs out to beat them, kidnap them & throw them in rape cages or kill them. THAT’S freedom.”

Hmmmm……

And Trump just helped Johnson ram a bill out of committee that sets up illegal alien recruitment offices in the middle east.



People ought to ask themselves which side they're on, because everyone else looks at them and does the same.

[Swordsmyth]

And Trump just helped Johnson ram a bill out of committee that sets up illegal alien recruitment offices in the middle east.

No he did not.
McConnell blamed him for opposing it.

[Swordsmyth]

CaptUSA: “Just leave people free to decide for themselves how and with whom they spend their hard earned money. That’s called freedom.”

Swordy: “No! I (or my duely elected govt agents) get to decide who they may purchase from and how much, and if they try to circumvent these rules we get to send armed thugs out to beat them, kidnap them & throw them in rape cages or kill them. THAT’S freedom.”

Hmmmm……

"Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, and devil take the hindmost"

When you tear down the defenses of a liberty society to allow in the enemies of liberty to destroy and oppress for a little filthy lucre in your wallet you will not even be eaten by the crocodile last, you will be eaten along side everyone else.

The Luciferic evil of anarchism which will not serve its fellow countrymen in order to preserve maximum liberty for all leads directly to Ahrimanic evil and global tyranny.

Luciferic Evil

Luciferic evil is named for, and symbolized by, Lucifer’s rejection of God’s sovereignty: “I will not serve.” It represents the first stage of evil, in its anti-authoritarian, individualist, and rebellious aspect which seeks to overthrow cosmos (natural order) to maximize freedom of action. Luciferian evil is often attractive, in the lustful blood-and-song manner of ancient pagan heroes, pirates, and rebels.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...il-in-politics

[CCTelander]

"Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, and devil take the hindmost"

When you tear down the defenses of a liberty society to allow in the enemies of liberty to destroy and oppress for a little filthy lucre in your wallet you will not even be eaten by the crocodile last, you will be eaten along side everyone else.

The Luciferic evil of anarchism which will not serve its fellow countrymen in order to preserve maximum liberty for all leads directly to Ahrimanic evil and global tyranny.



http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...il-in-politics

Wow. You can't even be bothered to honestly characterize what your opponents are actually advocating. No shock there. On the upside, your authoritarian wet dream of forcing others to live according to your dogma will never come to pass, so, I hope you thoroughly enjoy your frustration.

[acptulsa]

No he did not.
McConnell blamed him for opposing it.

LOL

McConnell tells a lie you find convenient and suddenly he's some kind of oracle.

Wow. You can't even be bothered to honestly characterize what your opponents are actually advocating.

It isn't about it being too big a bother. He can't risk thinking about alternate views because somewhere deep in his subconscious he does know what the stuff he's being fed, and regurgitates here, smells like.

[Swordsmyth]

LOL

McConnell tells a lie you find convenient and suddenly he's some kind of oracle.

That's you and Graham.
It's very clear Trump opposed the bill.

It isn't about it being too big a bother. He can't risk thinking about alternate views because somewhere deep in his subconscious he does know what the stuff he's being fed, and regurgitates here, smells like.

And again you project yourself and the other Free Trade cultists.
I'm the one who has made well thought out and reasoned arguments about my position and your position.
All you guys do is repeat dogma and refuse to think about it even when presented with solid arguments.

[acptulsa]

I'm the one who has made well thought out and reasoned arguments about my position and your position.
All you guys do is repeat dogma and refuse to think about it even when presented with solid arguments.

All we have to do to find the source of your derangements is visit a treehouse. Post your link to the source of my dogma. Show what I cut to repaste here.

[Swordsmyth]

All we have to do to find the source of your derangements is visit a treehouse. Post your link to the source of my dogma. Show what I cut to repaste here.

You free trade cultists regularly refer to the sources of your dogma when you try to defeat logic and history with appeals to authority.

You never engage on the logic or the facts, you just spout more memorized theory.

[CCTelander]

You free trade cultists regularly refer to the sources of your dogma when you try to defeat logic and history with appeals to authority.

You never engage on the logic or the facts, you just spout more memorized theory.

These are all lies. Over the years that this topic has been debated here you have been presented with everything you claim to have been denied and more, by a fairly large number of posters.

Also, I find it hilarious to be called a “cultist” by somebody who has spent YEARS obsequiously defending Trump from the overwhelming majority of criticisms levied against him, most of them reasonable and richly deserved. Talk about a “cultist.”

[acptulsa]

These are all lies. Over the years that this topic has been debated here you have been presented with everything you claim to have been denied and more, by a fairly large number of posters.

Also, I find it hilarious to be called a “cultist” by somebody who has spent YEARS obsequiously defending Trump from the overwhelming majority of criticisms levied against him, most of them reasonable and richly deserved. Talk about a “cultist.”

Liberals accuse others of their own sins all the time too. Funny how much those two groups of cultists, who fancy themselves so different, have in common.

[Occam's Banana]

Not when that country is an enemy.

"Oh, but those Germans make such nice toasters, and look how cheap they are!"

I have enough faith in the free market to believe that, if we suddenly couldn't import toasters, it wouldn't take free people long to get American toasters back in production.

I refuse to sweat over a toaster gap.

Dave Smith | No One Understands Economics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUd52EFl4m0
{Dave Smith Clips | 02 August 2024}

Dave Smith | J.D Vance Fails At Basic Economics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPN3cyltdDI
{Dave Smith Clips | 01 August 2024}

[ClaytonB]

Dave Smith | No One Understands Economics

Yep. If you want to talk about being "elite", as he notes in the clip, just reading Sowell's Basic Economics will put you in the top 5% of the population. Read Human Action and your economic understanding is in the top 5% of the pundit class -- probably higher. The entire, formerly opaque political order becomes completely transparent. And the most terrifying part is that the political "elites" don't find it in the slightest bit threatening. They've seen a million people wake up, become filled with horror at the reality of the world, then be ground to hamburger beneath the unstoppable tracks of its tyranny. Waking people up is only half the battle. The other half of the battle is that something inside of them needs to change. We need to start loathing the indignity of our condition...

[Occam's Banana]

Read Human Action and your economic understanding is in the top 5% of the pundit class -- probably higher.

I think you are being far too generous.

I suspect a figure of 0.5% for the "pundit class" would leave an ample margin for error (especially if Mises is the standard).

Unlike the general population, the job of the vast majority of the "pundit class" is to kiss political ass-cheeks (there's a left one, and there's a right one). And as they are ostensibly better educated than the population at large, they have even less of an excuse for their ignorance - assuming it really is ignorance, and not something worse (as Upton Sinclair noted, it is difficult to get a man to understand a thing when his paycheck depends upon his not understanding it).

[ClaytonB]

I think you are being far too generous.

I suspect a figure of 0.5% for the "pundit class" would leave an ample margin for error (especially if Mises is the standard).

Unlike the general population, the job of the vast majority of the "pundit class" is to kiss political ass-cheeks (there's a left one, and there's a right one). And as they are ostensibly better educated than the population at large, they have even less of an excuse for their ignorance - assuming it really is ignorance, and not something worse (as Upton Sinclair noted, it is difficult to get a man to understand a thing when his paycheck depends upon his not understanding it).

Agreed. I was searching for the right word, and that's what came to mind. I'm specifically referring to the think-tanker types. The people that people think "know stuff". And yeah, I'd agree to 0.5% as a reasonable estimate. It's beyond super-rare. If you've read and absorbed Human Action, you are the real intellectual elite in the true meaning of that word.

[Occam's Banana]

Agreed. I was searching for the right word, and that's what came to mind. I'm specifically referring to the think-tanker types.

That is who I understood you to mean (among other professional opinionators, such as Paul Krugman and Robert Reich).

In fact, the "think-tanker[s]" are exactly who I specifically had in mind when I made that Upton Sinclair reference. For example, what are the chances anyone at RAND is ever going to seriously buck the MIC in any significant way?

The wisest thing Lew Rockwell ever did was to make sure the Mises Institute didn't end up anywhere near the Washington, D.C. "beltway", literally or figuratively. (It's a pity that CATO wasn't so fastidious.)

[Madison320]

And then there's the moral argument against protectionism. Suppose I need a life saving medical device and I buy it on the black market overseas because it's too expensive to pay the tariff. Should I get thrown in jail?