30 years ago, my, then-Representative, Mike Pence was going around supporting tariffs on Chinese steel. I thought tariffs were a Bad Idea, prima facie. Pence ex

30 years ago, my, then-Representative, Mike Pence was going around supporting tariffs on Chinese steel. I thought tariffs were a Bad Idea, prima facie. Pence explained that if we allowed China to decimate our steel industry, we wouldn't be able to make tanks, domestically. Cogito ergo sum, it was a _literal_ national defense issue. I don't know where the steel issue stands any more, but we've already been at war with China over intellectual property for 20 years. It would make a great deal of sense to subsidize domestic silicon fabs and computer hardware manufacturing, and tariff foreign versions, for the same reason. It's no secret why Facebook is not allowed in China. They know exactly what it really does, and what its true value is, and they're not willing to allow that leverage to the US, and it's disturbing that their lack of reciprocity doesn't seem to cause much concern. It's kind of disgusting that we've outsourced so much of our infrastructure to a country which, in another generation, is going to become the world's most powerful. China is playing the long game. We're willingly giving up our lead because we've built our post-70's society on the almighty stock option, and our myopic focus on only the next quarter.