Samson
Póg Mo Thóin
Protectionism has been proven stupid for nearly 200 years, ever since Ricardo.
It makes no sense for people to pay extra for something you can get cheaper elsewhere.
If protection was a good idea, each family would still be chipping their own arrowheads and fletching their own arrows themselves.
Bad luck if you didn't have obsidian on your territory, and had to make do with basalt or agate.
Even if you are better at something than someone else, if you can make more resources for yourself doing something they can't, you still do better to hire the less competent person.
Milton Friedman uses the example of a lawyer who can type at 80wpm hiring a typist who can type at 30 wpm. The lawyers time is worth $200 per hour, the typist 's time is worth 8.
Meh....I don't often disagree, but on this point I do: Protectionism can in some circumstances be advantageous: For example, if the USA wanted to employ every unemployed person in the country, it could simply create trade barriers for all imported textile goods.