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Notes -
To reiterate the basic case:
Specialization and trade is the engine of ALL economic growth. There is a theoretical maximum point for any economy where everyone is as specialized as possible and trading away for everything else they want. International trade extends this theoretical maximum point. We might already be living beyond the point of maximum wealth if the US was only going to trade with itself.
I'm not entirely sure what point is being made for the "complicated economic case" or the "sovereignty case".
And how much are you willing to pay in average cost of living for these things? Should we be 20% poorer, 50% poorer, 90% poorer to support these things? Or is anything shy of 100% poorer acceptable? And like most economic issues its not just a one time payment, its an ongoing payment. So even being 2% poorer a year means that in about 30 years you are 50% poorer than you would have been.
Tariffs supported government revenue back in the day when alcohol taxes were enough to be about 25% of government revenue. I would love if goverment was that small. Tariffs are currently a rounding error as a revenue source. And I don't think there is a realistic way to get that number high enough.
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