1. To those that still support the current trade policy, they call free trade. There is a direct correlation between our trade policies & big government. Just like you can not have open border immigration with a welfare state you can not have zero tariffs in a welfare state.
2. The theory of free trade is that when an industry or company goes under due to trade, the lost jobs will be reabsorbed by the host economy and the goods will be cheaper for the consumer. The human capital will be reallocated to more productive industries.
3. This theory fails in a welfare state as the government/taxpayers fund the lost jobs and retraining. In a perfect free trade environment if the trade caused too many lost jobs the host country would no longer be able to trade because the laid off workers wouldn't have the $
4. The trade would falter and an equilibrium would be re-established. A welfare state strips that safety net and gives workers who have lost their jobs purchasing power to continue the lopsided trade long past that point.
5. In fact the longer this equilibrium is out of whack the larger the pull is to expand government. In other words the current trade policies are creating bigger and bigger government.
6. Any supporter of smaller government should also be a supporter of tariffs. And remain one as long as we have a welfare state that softens the blow from unfair trade in the same way they should support a secure border.
7. Supporting tariffs and secure borders at first seems like a contradiction to small government backers. However, both actions are the proper functions of the government whereas the welfare state is the result of the government not meeting those proper functions.
8. If you still can't accept the connection between our current "free trade" and the growth of the welfare state simply go back in time and look at how the welfare state bloomed as the trade deficit expanded.
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