Saturday, March 24, 2012
Right move, wrong reason
On rare occasions a Western government does the right thing, but it's always for weird illogical reasons that make the right move hard to maintain.
Example: US imposes an actual tariff on a Chinese product! Welcome news in any case, but it's done for reasons that make it hard to justify to anyone.
We're placing a 30% tariff on Chinese solar panels because China subsidizes them. China complains that we also subsidize our solar industry, and they're exactly right. The whole industry exists solely to suck subsidies. In places like UK and Germany where the subsidy is fading, the industry is also fading.
Rationally we should be placing a tariff on all Chinese crap, for the obvious and PATRIOTIC reason of keeping jobs here. (And for a secondary but equally good reason: taxing sinful behavior!)
But no American government can do that, because American governments slavishly obey the vicious sadistic traitorous arch-criminals who run Wall Street and major corporations.
Instead, we use a tariff only to protect our subsidies on fashionable idiocy from competing subsidies on fashionable idiocy.
We're fucked. ¶ 6:02 AM
Example: US imposes an actual tariff on a Chinese product! Welcome news in any case, but it's done for reasons that make it hard to justify to anyone.
We're placing a 30% tariff on Chinese solar panels because China subsidizes them. China complains that we also subsidize our solar industry, and they're exactly right. The whole industry exists solely to suck subsidies. In places like UK and Germany where the subsidy is fading, the industry is also fading.
Rationally we should be placing a tariff on all Chinese crap, for the obvious and PATRIOTIC reason of keeping jobs here. (And for a secondary but equally good reason: taxing sinful behavior!)
But no American government can do that, because American governments slavishly obey the vicious sadistic traitorous arch-criminals who run Wall Street and major corporations.
Instead, we use a tariff only to protect our subsidies on fashionable idiocy from competing subsidies on fashionable idiocy.
We're fucked. ¶ 6:02 AM
