I'm in favor of leveling the playing field. It's not really a question of abundance vs scarcity for me. The problem as I see it is that there are opposing forces each getting bills passed that have caused the employment & economic problems we have today. For example, free trade vs higher taxes. That gives double the incentive to not only to move production overseas but also move part or all of a companies operation overseas.
Add to that the costs of operation that are steadily rising as more state/federal compliance regulations, licensing, and such are added every year. It's no wonder US corporations are jumping ship. We're also one of the few countries still trying to tax foreign profits as well. In doing so the government has created loopholes to dodge paying taxes on income generated domestically. But that's another topic.
Using tariffs to level the playing field isn't a bad idea, it's just a bad idea to do it in such a way that causes scarcity. Also, just raising tariffs alone will not solve the problem.
I'm more of a conservative and I believe that income inequality is real. I just see it as a product of years of government, state and federal, manipulation that has stifled competition.
I agree 100% with your comment, and it's part of why I took such a long time to highlight that protectionism doesn't actually encourage abundance.
I touch on it in my reply to @kooshikoo, but the issue I don't address in this post at all is that even if we as a culture and society were to suddenly give up our obsession with market regulation, those who have seen their interests protected for the last century would have the resources to continue to protect themselves, at this point.
I see a lot of economic conservatives lead this to them thinking we should have a transitionary period where the regulations bias toward the consumer, not producer. However, I don't see that as any guarantee against continued reinforcement of the current hegemony.
I think the only thing truly helping are projects like Steemit and other emergent value markets, which simply don't require participation in the mainstream market for their own valuation to be real. But, that's a long thought probably better saved for a fresh post.
Thanks for reading!
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