I remember being taught in high school economics

[conuly]

that tariffs, long a favorite tool of protectionist governments, are typically bad in the long run. You save jobs, but at a high cost, and in the end free trade is better. Of course, this being high school you never know how much you're being educated vs. fed capitalist propaganda.

So I have two questions. First, is this actually accurate, and secondly... would it make sense to think of strict immigration controls as a form of tariff on labor rather than goods?

Comments

[chickenfeet]

Part of the problem with this thesis is that is predicated on the notion that "free markets" are the most efficient. The trouble is that hardly ant actual markets meet the stringent conditions that define a "free market".Once you begin to relax those conditions it doesn't necessarily follow that following some free market like policies will produce the most efficient result consistent with the constraints. This is known as "Lipsey's theory of second best" which has been understood by economists and ignored by politicians for decades.

[conuly]

So what do we know about the effect of tariffs in the real world, and why do I keep trying to double that r?

[chickenfeet]

I think what we kinow is that it's very difficult to predict the consequences. Economies are extremely complex systems (and not, of course, isolated from politics). I would argue that the SAFEST approach is to try and build free/far trade areas with standardised rules relating to employment rights, environmental protection, product standards and so on. I can't guarantee this is the MOST efficient economic solution but it does have the advantage that countries with heavily interdependent economies rarely go to war with each other. I realise that this is unlikely to convince the Honourable Member for the 18th century or the Orange Moron.

[thekumquat]

Building an area like the EU, in fact. Which, whatever anyone says about it, has prevented its members from going to war.


Sigh. (I'm a UK civil servant tasked with making Brexit something other than an almighty clusterfuck...)

[conuly]

Sounds fun!