Watching intelligent people across America defend tariffs has been shocking/amusing, to say the least. We all understand that for most of human history, everyo

Watching intelligent people across America defend tariffs has been shocking/amusing, to say the least. We all understand that for most of human history, everyone lived at a subsistence level because we all had to farm our food, bake our bread, sew our clothes, build our own houses, etc. Specialization is what makes the luxury and wealth of the modern world possible: you do one thing all day long and convert it to cash, then exchange value with people who do other stuff to get what you want. And since they're operating at scale, they can build more houses, make more stuff, etc. that you ever can if you did it yourself. So, you pay less for more stuff. International trade simply takes it to the next level. For instance, the average American will not bend over to pick cocoa beans for chocolate for even $100k/yr. Many of you will argue, but all I'll say to you is that there's a reason agricultural work is referred to as back-breaking work. There's also a reason why farmers have the highest rate of suicides. Even if the American eventually agrees to do it, the cost will be so prohibitive that buying chocolate will be out-of-reach for everyone but the rich. Abundance ended; the end. Now, using tariffs, the US gov. wants to take money away from customers and use it to prop up inefficient businesses that should be outsourced to other places that can do it well. If the CCP wants to subsidize solar panels and sell them to you, why not accept free panels funded by diluting the wealth of Chinese workers and savers? The main argument mercantilists use against free trade is that after establishing a monopoly, incumbents can raise prices. They forget that there's competition, even among solar manufacturers in China and anyone trying to bait and switch would be driven out of business by smaller, hungrier players. And in this example, PV lasts 40-50 years and once you buy it, they can't gouge you. No country has benefited from free trade like America; no bloc has benefitted like the West. You're mad at China for lifting hundreds of millions from grinding poverty, without realizing that Chinese mass production has cushioned the effect of all the money-printing by Western economies for decades now. Hundreds of millions of Chinese workers going into cities to work in manufacturing are the reason why many middle class workers across the West can afford cheap consumer goods, despite their government's dumb financial decisions. But, it's okay: we'll see how it plays out.