Rand Paul goes full retard over Canada tariffs
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The problem is he's being to principled over a pragmatic problem.
He believes in free trade, 100% across the board, the problem is, EVERY OTHER country is tariffing the US so there is no free trade.
The best way forward is reciprocal tariffs as the only way to stop the US tariffing you is to stop tariffing the US. Trying to maintain free trade before the negotiations are done is shooting yourself in the foot.
Rand has always been principle over logic. Its both his greatest strength and weakness.
So there are times he will be the best ally possible because he refuses to budge when everyone else is, but just as often if not more he will be the loudest retard because he cannot be reasoned with to compromise for the best outcome.
Nah, he's just being flat-out retarded. Principles imply a level of thought put into why you have them in the first place. He saw the word "free" and thought "good".
Everything he says in this article is insulting to anyone with a functioning brain and shows a lack of understanding from him in even the most basic of economic concepts and reality.
He says stupid bullshit like “The consumer wins when the price is the lowest price, tariffs raise prices and they’re a bad idea for the economy.” The American people have been subject to decades of inferior goods (its an economic term, look it up) as a result of lowered wages and displaced jobs from the loss of industries (most notably manufacturing) and the destruction of the middle class because of past corrupt administrations and politicians. The average American has little money, so we can only buy cheap garbage sold back to us by countries like China who stole our industry in the first place. It wasn't like this in the past. We used to be self-sufficient. Everyone would rather be richer and meaningfully employed as a whole to be able to buy actual quality goods in general than having the cheapest crap shoveled down our throats.
Imagine him saying this bullshit to anyone who lost their jobs as a result of previous administrations selling out our country from under us. My grandfather and all of his co-workers (read: thousands of people) lost their jobs as a result of the EPA being used as a cudgel against the company, which took all the machines, moved them all to China, and laid them all off in waves after several slimy tactics. The only machines that remained here were the ones to stamp "Made in the U.S.A." unto the products.
I'm convinced that the real reason GamerGate was such a watershed moment is because it exposed the lie they've been using everywhere to convince the public they want things which they absolutely do NOT want.
We aren't fungible consoomers of cheap goods in an economic zone
Most industry was driven out by labor laws, regulations, and corrupt subsidies of trans-Pacific shipping. None of which will be repealed. The end result is going to be higher prices.
It's a good example of why libertarianism is a wholly unviable ideology, economically and culturally.
They do not take bad faith into account and they do not act against it when and if they admit that it exists at all.
The libertarian response to being buttraped is to offer the guy some lube in hopes you'll tear less.
If tariffs don't work then why does every other country charge the US tariffs? But they can't work in the USA, they just can't alright!!! Because...ummm reasons!
They don't work for this countries either, everything there is expensive, for more than here. The exception being a subsidized good in socialist states like Norway (oil).
Leftists hate tariffs because they protect workers without communism.
Rand Paul is demonstrating the utter uselessness of big L libertarians when it comes to any issue of note. Rand Paul would see the entirety of US manufacturing sent overseas if it meant lower prices for goods in stores, and he makes no allowance for what that would do for American society, or national security.
He hasn't paid even a little bit attention to the hundreds of thousands of dead working class Americans that have died due to the loss of purpose those men have experienced when their jobs were offshored.
Did he ever voice this displeasure when the other countries put tariffs on the US?
I really like Rand but, yeah, sometimes he's too principled.
Also, as someone who is fairly libertarian myself, I really don't agree with the libertarians on tariffs. I think it's a major blind spot for them. Just like how lefty "libertarians" believe in open boarders, and don't see the contradiction with property rights, libertarians in general want complete global trade, and see any protectionism as anti-free-trade. I'm not well versed in economics, so I could even be wrong, but it just seems terribly shortsighted.
I don't want the government mucking about too much in economics but, just like with the physical boarder, international economics seems like it's totally the domain of the government...or it gets hard to keep a nation. Pure laissez-faire globalist trade has been a fucking disaster, and has helped worsen our economic prospects. We have to disincentivize corporations outsourcing jobs to slave countries and, as sad as it is as a libertarian, a government is probably just about the only ones who can do that.
Unless we want to keep spiraling down the drain, we need something like tariffs. Doesn't mean this initiative is executed perfectly or even well, but the "open boarders" argument for economics is a hard sell for me.
We need to do things in order. If, for the sake of argument, global free trade is truly a good thing...well, unless every nation is playing the same game, that can't happen. So we should focus on the domestic economy first, then maybe try to open up the rest of the world to free and fair trade. Which, ironically, is part of the stated goal of these tariffs! These tariffs are, on paper at least, trying to create more free and open trade. Again, doesn't mean this operation is perfect, but I think the libertarians - usually good on many aspects of economics, in my opinion - miss the mark on this big time.