Trumps Socialist Mindset On Trade By Jacob G. Hornberger !!!
(2019-07-02 at 05:13:53 )

Trumps Socialist Mindset on Trade by Jacob G. Hornberger

In announcing that the United States and China are resuming trade talks, President Trump demonstrated the socialist mindset that afflicts him and his fellow Republicans and, for that matter, the Democrats as well.

President Trump said that during the negotiations, the United States would keep a 25 percent duty on $250 billion of Chinese goods and that he would give China a list of United States products to buy.

A list of United States products to buy?

How in the world does President Trump come up with such a list?

How does he know what China wants?

What if China is not interested in buying those particular things?

It does not matter, at least not to President Trump.

What matters to him is that he knows which particular United States products he wants sold and is forcing China to buy them as part of the agreement to return to the negotiating table.

It would be difficult to find a better example of the mindset of a central planner than that.

Under a free-market system, people are free to buy whatever they want to buy. They make the choice, not the government.

Now, we all know that China is not a genuine free-market system.

While the Chinese regime has tremendously reduced government control over economic activity, there is still a considerable amount of government enterprise, not to mention the fact that the government retains overall control over economic activity.

Like here in the United States, there is still a large amount of central planning, government management of the economy, subsidies, and other socialist and interventionist policies. Thus, the decisions to purchase things are made by both the Chinese government and the Chinese private sector.

Regardless, whether it is either the Chinese government or a Chinese business that is doing the buying, the principle is the same: they are going to buy what they want to buy.

Why should they be compelled to buy what they do not want to buy as a condition for negotiations that might lead to President Trump ending his trade war?

Like Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Trump has convinced himself that the role of a president of a country is to manage and control trade and economic activity.

That is why he is providing the Chinese with a list of what they must buy from United States of American sellers, whether they want to buy such things or not.

How does President Trump decide which American products and sellers make his favorites list?

Politics, of course.

We have a presidential election coming up.

President Trump is no dummy.

Like his Democratic opponents, he has to start passing out the political candy in order to get votes. Therefore, the people who are going to make the list are those who stand a good chance at helping him get elected.

Among the privileged will almost certainly be those United States of American farmers who President Trump has bankrupted or severely damaged economically with his trade war.

To ease the economic destruction that he has wrought on them, President Trump ended up putting them on welfare.

Undoubtedly he will put them on his favorites list so that he can proclaim, "Look what I have done for you. I bankrupted you but I put you on welfare and also on my favorites list that forced the Chinese to buy your products. We are winning my trade war and we are making America great again!"

What people want to buy never enters the mind of the central planner.

All that matters is what President Trump wants, and right now he wants accolades and votes.

In fact, President Trumps entire trade war goes to show the mindset of the central planner, one characterized by what Friedrich Hayek called a "fatal conceit" - a conceit by which the planner professes to know what people want better than they do.

Convinced that United States of American businessmen could not handle Chinas unfair trade practices, President Trump designated himself as the official agent for American business and industry.

By raising taxes on the United States of American people ((that is what tariffs are), President Trump was going to show the Chinese how "tough" he could be in trade negotiations as agent for American business and industry.

Predictably, China retaliated by increasing tariffs on United States of American goods.

The losers in all this trade mayhem?

Both the American people and the Chinese people.

Among United States of American losers are the businesses that have been bankrupted or severely damaged by President Trumps trade antics.

Also losing are United States of American consumers, who President Trump has forced to pay higher prices for items they wish to purchase.

Most important, President Trumps antics have served to further destroy the economic liberty of the United States of American people.

People have the fundamental, natural, God-given right to trade with whomever they want.

That is what freedom, at a minimum, necessarily entails - the right to use your money the way you want.

As the Declaration of Independence, which we celebrate this week, points out, no government, not even the United States government, wields the legitimate authority to destroy the liberty of its own citizens.

Yet, that is precisely what President Trump has done with his trade war.

The Democrats?

They too believe that it is the role of a president to manage trade and to negotiate trade deals with foreign nations.

They too have the socialist mindset of the central planner.

Their only difference with President Trump is that they feel that they can be better central planners than President Trump and his Republican cohorts.

The libertarian position?

Reject socialism and central planning entirely.

Ditch trade negotiations and trade agreements.

Unilaterally lift all United States trade restrictions and tariffs on the United States of American people.

Free the United States of American people to trade freely with whomever they want anywhere in the world, including Cubans, Iranians, North Koreans, Chinese, Venezuelans, and everyone else in the world.

If foreign regimes engage in unfair trade practices, which is a virtual certainty, so be it.

Leave that to United States of American businessmen and United States of American consumers.

What foreign regimes do to their citizenry is no business of a United States president or the United States government.

Reprinted here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!