To be fair, Greenfield (as I recall) talks about massive exports from Britain to the US - which the Brits, being at that time more skillful and more technologically advanced - could produce far less expensively. I doubt that they did it with the purpose of not allowing the US to develop. Most likely, those British companies simply wanted to make money.
I don’t think it’s fair to call it “dumping” - but, the effect was similar. And, the tariffs helped the American domestic economy to develop. It seems that the analogy, in broad terms, has validity.
There is this old joke about Psychiatrists. “Question: How many Psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: One -- BUT, the bulb must WANT to change”.
Same thing here. The new protectionist tariffs will, likely, give our economy a chance to catch up. But, will our business people use this chance - or, will they just enjoy the opportunity to charge more for the same old mousetraps? This, remains to be seen. |
