Trade Wars are Good and Easy to Win.

As we all know, trade wars are both good and easy to win. Over the course of human history, those countries which have best sealed themselves off, and refused to trade with outside nations, and when doing so only for what is absolutely necessary and with exorbitant tariffs attached have done the best, and experienced prosperity.

This is why North Korea is so successful today, why China was so successful before it was opened to trade, and why no empire has ever faltered by closing itself off. Countries are simply better at producing every single thing they need than they are at trading based on comparative advantage.

When a government allows its citizens to buy the goods that they want at the best available prices, it does them a disservice, how can they enjoy the things they want without getting the government involved after all. This is why tariffs are good, they allow the government to involve itself in trade, and allow it to extract additional taxes from the population. Trade wars are good because they allow for increases in taxation and government control of the goods we consume.

This obviously benefits you. It’s really hard to walk down the aisle in the grocery store and choose between 20 or even 30 different types of cereal. It would be better if you only had two options so that you didn’t have to think about it quite so much. This is the same for every product we consume. High steel and aluminum tariffs will make fewer models of cars available, and keep prices higher. Having a car will be more exclusive, and the lack of variation will lead us back to the lovely time of the Trebant. Who doesn’t miss long waiting lists to be able to get the only car on the market at exorbitant prices?

Trade wars are both good, and easy to win. Raising tariffs in order to mitigate the impacts of the nonsensically overhyped trade deficit will have no negative repercussions whatsoever. Continuing to engage our trading partners in outrage heavy banter will only serve our interests by showing just how good they are at growing government, and easy to win they are when your goal is expanding your own influence.