Comparing a agrarian economy to a present day industrialized automated economy. Has little correlation.
In 1789 the US had the means to supply its needs and the production of those needs all in place. There was nothing that needed to be imported. The tariffs were to protect existing economy. And tax the rich.
Present day the supply lines are global and specialized. They do not exist within the US. It took over a decade to move production offshore. It will take at least that long to move it back.
Tariffs can't address this as they are just a tax on the consumer that has no choice but to pay them. Tariffs could have addressed this before production was moved. But now its to late, as the production is gone.
Thomas Jefferson knew this very well.
These revenues will be levied entirely on the rich, the business of household manufacture being now so established that the farmer and laborer clothe themselves entirely. The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. The poor man who uses nothing but what is made in his own farm or family, or within his own country, pays not a farthing of tax to the general government, but on his salt; and should we go into that manufacture also, as is probable, he will pay nothing. Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings. However, therefore, we may have been reproached for pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on it, and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its merit. And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of government, and the first duty of governors. |
