Disagree wholeheartedly. To an extent you are right -- protectionism is a policy option. And for all our yammering on about free markets and competition, the US is not particularly open to competition. I just saw the following the other day in a World Bank paper: trade accounted for about 30% of US GDP as of 2015, less than the average of 70% in other advanced economies. The US accounts for 24% of global GDP and 11% of global trade. This economy is already pretty protected.
Which leads me back to those people who think China's eating our lunch. Or who think that if we could just call black people anything we want we'd have a more competitive economy, but who never think of what rent-seeking and anti-competitive behaviour our corporate champions engage in that actually does impact the economy. Those people are trying to shield themselves from the marketplace of ideas just like the campus snowflakes. They are entirely engaged in the marketplace of ideas, actually. And very disengaged from the facts around them.
Which leads me back to those people who think China's eating our lunch. Or who think that if we could just call black people anything we want we'd have a more competitive economy, but who never think of what rent-seeking and anti-competitive behaviour our corporate champions engage in that actually does impact the economy. Those people are trying to shield themselves from the marketplace of ideas just like the campus snowflakes. They are entirely engaged in the marketplace of ideas, actually. And very disengaged from the facts around them.
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