...Prior to the enactment of the dreaded income tax, which began only in 1913, the government imposed very high tariffs, which were levied on imported goods throughout the nation's history from its beginnings in the 18th century through the end of the 1800s. These protectionist tariffs laid the groundwork for the American industrial revolution.
The system worked. We had the natural resources, the labor markets, the intellectual know-how and the world's largest consumer market, all in one nation. America simply had to produce its own goods domestically to avoid paying the high costs of the tariffs that were placed on French fabrics and English steel. American industry flourished, and the government was funded without a dime of income taxes. This healthy economic policy should be revisited -- it worked then and it could work again.
This successful policy slowly changed with the advent of the dreaded income tax, which reduced the government's reliance on tariffs for revenue. And, as with all government programs that once begin as temporary, the income tax grew into the monster we know today, while the historically high tariffs decreased to virtually nothing today. Big mistake. We're now evolved to a point that not only do the few remaining factory workers have low salaries, but, adding insult to injury, they have to pay high income taxes, too.
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Republicans weren't always "free traders." Protectionism was a big part of the Republican platform when the party was founded in the 1850s. Beginning with President Lincoln, Republicans continued as big protectionists throughout the latter part of the 19th century.
We need to revisit tariffs and protectionist policies to protect the loss of our jobs and, indeed, our entire economic infrastructure. Free-trade proponents once argued that we were merely trading low manufacturing jobs for the better intellectual jobs in a whole new high-tech era to come. That era has already come, and the high-tech jobs have now gone overseas, too. What will they say now?
A country without a manufacturing or intellectual base of employment is hardly a nation. Should the welfare of the many be supported by the labors of a few? Free traders apparently think so.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/02/09/asparks.DTL