Presidential debate tonight

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

So, you two guys are against any trade restrictions or tariffs at all against imports?

Because American retailers choose then to "screw their customers"?

If the retailers screw their customers (charging prices in excess of what supply and demand would dictate), they will pay the price. Their business will suffer.

The marketplace tends to be efficient and self-regulate so that the consumer gets the best product and the most competitive price. When capitalism is left alone that is.

As for tariffs - not fond of them. However, some countries heavily tariff our goods that we export, so a reactionary tariff might balance it out. Most preferable would be truly free trade of course, but that's only possible when all governments involved in the trade transaction disavow tariffs.

So the reactionary implementation of tariff could have a law written just like that: "The tariff on an imported good from a particular country will be equal to the import tariff imposed in that particular country on that same good shipped from the United States."

There wouldn't even be any lag, save administrative, in the age of computers within a day. If a country decides to tariff our stuff, they get the same treatment here. If they decide to play nice and eliminate the tariff, ours goes away immediately also.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by joeydb

The marketplace tends to be efficient and self-regulate so that the consumer gets the best product and the most competitive price. When capitalism is left alone that is.

Can you name one example of one country that had the economic system you describe, and survived?

You can use historical references, too.

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by Riot

Can you name one example of one country that had the economic system you describe, and survived?

You can use historical references, too.

A meaningless question.

All forms of government fall. All things die. All of the concepts humans can think of are less than ideal.

Modern capitalism is only about as old as the Industrial Revolution and the age of modern mass production. So showing that empires or governments predating the 1800's have fallen does little to advance your position.