(06-09-2024, 12:28 PM)Jaguarmeister Wrote:

(06-09-2024, 09:04 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:  People don't want to subsidize businesses, which is understandable, but they want to put tariffs on Chinese imports.  It's the same thing.  A tariff on foreign products is a subsidy for domestic businesses.

"Same thing" is a stretch.  Tariffs allow consumers to still make their own decision but obviously price encourages them in a particular direction.  Subsidies often prop up bad ideas or bad business models for political or ideological reasons.

Tariffs are not a bad idea when the playing field isn't level.  The playing field isn't level when the cost of labor in China is kept artificially low.  The US has the most attractive economy in the world to do business in.  We shouldn't be giving unfriendly regimes unfettered access to it which by extension allows them to enrich themselves with which to metaphorically throw their weight around in opposition to us later.

You're still free to make your own decision when there is a subsidy.  You can choose to buy the subsidized thing or the unsubsidized thing.  Same as a tariff.

When China keeps their labor costs artificially low, they are short changing and sometimes even oppressing their laborers. To a degree, we get to sit back and laugh at that.  When most laborers can't afford a place of their own with privacy, it's a real handicap to all sorts of economic growth.

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