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If you want to see the outcome of a lack of protectionism, look no further than the devastation of the steel, automobile and other manufacturing industries in t

If you want to see the outcome of a lack of protectionism, look no further than the devastation of the steel, automobile and other manufacturing industries in the ‘70s and ‘80s which effectively wiped out the middle class.

beaconstudios 6y ago
hey I'm no fan of naked neoliberalism either, but I promise you an EU facebook would suck just as much and in the same ways as US facebook. Profit motives still exist for huge corporations in Europe. every tool has its use, but protectionism is not the way to solve big tech's bad incentives.
- KDJohnBrown 6y ago
  Why is protectionism bad? Why is it better to allow trade imbalances which sucks your nation’s financial and intellectual wealth to others with nothing in return?
  - beaconstudios 6y ago
    I don't think any given tool is universally bad. Protectionism just doesn't help in this case.
  - Nasrudith 6y ago
    By definition in a trade imbalance you are getting the imports in return. Putting aside believed Great Depression influences and tit for tat tarrifing it puts your own nation's companies at a disadvantage intentionally by discouraging both efficiency and quality. Coddling them with a protected domestic market. Protecting one company means harming others who depend upon their type of outputs. This in turn harms their competiveness and can lead to domestic demand declining. Effectively imposing a tarrif is like sanctioning yourself - If protectionism was helpful shouldn't they be at least a player in the Caribbean and South and Central American markets? Cuba had its own domestic auto market for decades from sanctions and the only people to benefit were mechanics as they had to play automobile reanimator to actively used vehicles that have grown older than the oldest member of their workforce.
Nasrudith 6y ago
Steel and automobiles had the same root cause - management complacency. Not from a failure to race to the bottom as often suggested. Instead from their failure to invest in improving tools and processes. Edward Deming offered his statistical improvement techniques domestically first and they passed on them. Japan didn't.

beaconstudios 6y ago

hey I'm no fan of naked neoliberalism either, but I promise you an EU facebook would suck just as much and in the same ways as US facebook. Profit motives still exist for huge corporations in Europe. every tool has its use, but protectionism is not the way to solve big tech's bad incentives.

KDJohnBrown 6y ago
Why is protectionism bad? Why is it better to allow trade imbalances which sucks your nation’s financial and intellectual wealth to others with nothing in return?
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  I don't think any given tool is universally bad. Protectionism just doesn't help in this case.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  By definition in a trade imbalance you are getting the imports in return. Putting aside believed Great Depression influences and tit for tat tarrifing it puts your own nation's companies at a disadvantage intentionally by discouraging both efficiency and quality. Coddling them with a protected domestic market. Protecting one company means harming others who depend upon their type of outputs. This in turn harms their competiveness and can lead to domestic demand declining. Effectively imposing a tarrif is like sanctioning yourself - If protectionism was helpful shouldn't they be at least a player in the Caribbean and South and Central American markets? Cuba had its own domestic auto market for decades from sanctions and the only people to benefit were mechanics as they had to play automobile reanimator to actively used vehicles that have grown older than the oldest member of their workforce.

Nasrudith 6y ago

Steel and automobiles had the same root cause - management complacency. Not from a failure to race to the bottom as often suggested. Instead from their failure to invest in improving tools and processes. Edward Deming offered his statistical improvement techniques domestically first and they passed on them. Japan didn't.