By George Leef
Thursday, August 29, 2024
At the top of the Republican Party we now have two
politicians, Trump and Vance, who embrace government intervention for what they
see as important goals for the nation — or at least for their election. Behind
them is the big national-conservative movement, with lots of resources to push
their agenda, which calls for government power to do good.
In this AIER article, economics professor Donald Boudreaux jousts
with the NatCons over their intellectual and policy inconsistencies.
A slice:
Is the non-economic value of the
jobs destroyed by protectionism less than is the non-economic value of the jobs
preserved by protectionism? It must be so for the NatCon case to hold together.
Yet I’ve never encountered a protectionist of any stripe who explains why the
jobs preserved by protectionism have a higher non-material or ethical
importance than do the jobs destroyed by protectionism.
The NatCons, when confronted by the arguments of
classical liberals like Boudreaux, usually retreat behind such smokescreens as
calling their opponents “market fundamentalists.”
The left-interventionists long ago stopped debating the
pros and cons of their policies, and it’s truly depressing that the
right-interventionist crowd is following their lead.
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