Tariffs are the traditional method. Free trade the new idea.
free trade wasn't even an idea before protectionism became an idea, it was just 'there' since the very beginning. free trade is just natural. and free trade was first by a mile.
Conservatism is to conserve traditional policies and methods,
agreed.
so free trade is the newer liberal method.
incorrect.
Or did you not know the meaning of conservatism.
more insults.
Free trade is a policy of reduced tariffs.
you can argue whether fair trade or free trade is best, but you can't make a logical case that your position isn't 'fair' trade, which is not 'free' trade.
It is not a policy of doing nothing as you suggest.
free trade just means the lack of interference between trading partners.
I doubt we could do as well with no exports and dependant on imports.
very few if any countries would stop all trade with us if we didn't have a trade agreement. and if some country did require an 'agreement', we could write it to say "you may place any requirements you choose on our trade, and we will put no requirements on you, because we understand that if you restrict trade with us, you hurt yourselves more than you hurt us". now that would be a 'free trade' agreement that any country would sign. and if they say "with that agreement, we don't need any agreement at all.", we'd answer "exactly!".
Not using tariffs especially without an agreement is akin to walking in a bad neighbor hood with your wallet stuck to your back.
it's nothing like that at all. if you don't like the trade, you simply don't do the trade. or in your analogy, you simply don't walk down the street with your wallet stuck to your back. it's just like in life, you don't do the deal unless you like the deal. your 'protection' is your good sense.
Tariffs are a very good and necessary form of protection.
the only trade protection that's ever needed, is protection from anyone interfering with trade. that's the only role of good government in international trade.
A tax on income allows the government to tax everybody and rake in too much money which they use to control us. Swapping that for a national sales tax simply does essentially the same thing. Instead of a tax on everybody it is a tax on everything.
i've just explained the difference between an income tax and a national sales tax, and why a national sales tax would be better for us. if you don't want to accept it, that's up to you.
The government will simply exempt certain class's of people from the sales tax.
it all depends on who will write the law. a national sales tax would still be better because it would tax consumption and reward saving. |
