Contra Ricardo: An Essay Read online

Chapter 4: Tariffs

  We suppose a country like early America. We have tariffs. The tariffs help other regions and segments of society disproportionately. Let us suppose that the tariff is protecting shoddy goods across an industry, rather than promoting economic growth. Public resentment and government action can threaten to lower or remove tariffs to force improvements in that industry. In other words, shape up or be ran out of business. What do you think these companies would prefer? Let us say that domestic industry is using the tariff to protect and aid conspiracy in setting prices. Let us say an attempt to monopolize an industry is underway by first price undercutting, then conspiracy with transport companies and the usual means. In both cases, government and public ire can threaten to reduce or remove tariffs to blunt the conspiracies of either sort. Since foreign goods are not readily available to intimidation or collusion with the price fixers, the country uses the threat of tariffs to control the conspiracies. After all, you have to prove conspiracies. The conspiracies may have corrupted the courts. Legislating tariffs is above board and can blunt the conspiracies. Congressmen can also be bribed, but they stick out more than judges and more easily removed by the ballot box.

  What happens when companies become multinationals? Should the people assume that this will rid them of conspiracies against the consumers? Ha, ha, ha! But there are no longer tariffs to use as a weapon. The conspiracies cut across national borders, so local government is paralyzed or blunted in taking legal or legislative action to force compliance with fair trade. Then what happens? The one world, Commie liars use this to bring about international central control to “help the people.” The problem is that the new magnates are evil and vile, not promoters of justice as they claim. The centralized Commie, Satan spawned oligarchy will cause factions, plots, resentment all around. Society will go into turmoil. The center will not hold. This will be used as an excuse for more centralization, leading to perpetual war and oppression. What party should we choose? Let me explain something about the options.

  The left wing, right wing agenda: You can have affordable health care that isn't worth having or has long waiting lines, or quality health that many cannot afford. You can have affordable housing that does not exist or is hardly worth having, or quality housing that many cannot afford. Perhaps your neighbor loses his job and you can pick up real estate on the cheap. You can have overt oppressive government and regulations, or covert oppressive government run from clubs and cabals. Government officials are low paid and few, controlled by plutocratic and occult forces. In effect you live under an oppressive state with a hypocritical veneer of freedom. You can have overt control of most wealth in the hands of a few under capitalism, or covert control of the wealth of the few under socialism. They are democratic vanguards of the masses, except they are not democratic. They claim to be an elite just as the plutocrats and cabals do. The more things change the more they remain the same, as Talleyrand claimed. How is that? Nothing changed except in appearance only; that is why. Justice cannot be based on fraud.

  A few more points on tariffs:

  A big cause of America's Civil War: The Yankees wanted tariffs to build up industry. This allowed the US to arm itself against Albion and enemies, to create a diverse economy. The South was rural and plantation centered. The tariffs hurt the South more than the North. So more of the tariff's proceeds should have gone to South Carolina than Massachusetts, a state getting jobs and income off the tariff. Meaning? A compensating expenditure in the South to build roads, infrastructure with money from the tariffs. If need be, rebates go to Southern towns and states to offset taxes, putting money into consumers to offset tariff increases on goods, directly and indirectly. Needless to say, this would have encouraged population growth and industry in the South, dampened secessionist sentiment, and gave the South more votes in Congress. But this would have helped the Commonwealth of America rather than the oligarchy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at least in their lust filled distorted minds. The Yankees and Southern gentry were fighting a turf war over lifestyle and local influence. The North used slavery to bury this fight as an excuse to 'Drive Old Dixie Down'. In fact most Yankees were racists and were against slavery for economic reasons. Southern conditions relied on slavery. Ultimately, compensating the South for emancipation and modern changes in life would have ended slavery to the satisfaction of both Northerners and Southerners. The fact is that the Civil War left the African-American a virtual slave well into the 20th Century. Hypocrite Yankees and hypocrite Southern Gentlemen destroyed the peace of the nation, because they put faction over commonwealth. Now the racist policy of favoring one race at the expense of individuals of another race was foisted on us to promote more unfairness. It is claimed that the tariff and states rights had nothing to do with the Civil War by many. But the nation was on the brink of civil war during the administration of Andrew Jackson. Jackson was a Southerner, owned slaves and came from the slave state of Tennessee. Civil war was definitely possible 30 years earlier. Do not tell me states rights and unfair tariffs did not contribute to the Civil War. You are a liar. I am from the North, oppose slavery, supported the North retrospectively in the war. I also know the history of New England, that there is nothing new about it, the same frauds and liars from the old country. Oh, it just so happened that abolition served the narrow interest of New England. Slave ships from New York and Boston were captured the year before the war broke out off of Africa. Oh, see, the North was sincere. Oh? Or did some slave trading scumbag of a captain(s) fail to bribe the right people back home, or had enemies at home, were ratted on, set up to make the North look good in the coming war? What abominable hypocrisy! Just like the old country. England outlawed slavery and used suppressing the slave trade as an excuse to enslave the continent of Africa. England pushed drugs to China until China started producing most of its opium at home, and might have started to export it. Only then, did Perfidious Albion outlaw drugs and start a crusade against addiction, something the Emperor of China attempted, but was defeated by drug pushing England using the excuse of free trade. By the way, outlawing drugs made it more lucrative to organized crime, the bankers who laundered the money, and glossed the shame hovering over these British defenders of free trade from their drug pushing deeds. Gangsters became the front men for the City of London and its worldwide confederates, and took the heat. Back to Table of Content

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