Tariffs Destroy Consumer Choice
Retail sales were down for May with the AP reporting, “The figure was pulled down by a steep drop in auto sales, after Americans ramped up their car-buying in March to get ahead of Trump’s 25% duty on imported cars and car parts. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.3% in May.”
This is no surprise to my wife. In a recent visit to her favorite luxury import car dealer, she was told, “Germany hasn’t sent us any cars in six months. We have no inventory.” Expecting sympathy from her MAGA-inclined girlfriends when she says there are no cars to buy, they respond to this tariff anecdote with “good.”
One of my wife’s great regrets was never meeting Murray Rothbard. But his words explain what she’s annoyed about, “Protectionism not only injures the American consumer directly, by using coercion to prevent him [or her] from buying the cheaper textiles or cameras or automobiles that he [or she] would like to buy.”
In her case, it isn’t cheaper automobiles she’s looking for, but autos that she likes that are her preference and that are, in her mind, of higher quality than automobiles made in the US. She’s desired these cars since she was a little girl and now she can afford them, but current government policy is k
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
