The Language is All Wet
Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
Editor:
Your headline writers describe the consequence of Americans purchasing foreign-made goods before Trump’s punitive taxes on these purchases kicks in as “a flood of imports” (“Before the Tariffs: A Flood of Imports,” May 1). Please use different language.
Floods occur because humans lose control of their surroundings; floods are involuntary. Importing, in contrast, is completely under the control of each individual who chooses if – and, if so, how much – to spend on foreign-made goods; importing is voluntary.
Floods create victims whose lives are worsened; importing creates beneficiaries whose lives are enriched.
Floods destroy wealth; they deprive people of possessions that enrich their lives. Importing, in contrast, creates wealth; it expands people’s ability to acquire possessions that enrich their lives.
Far closer to floods are tariffs themselves, for it is these measures that destroy wealth and make the regions affected by them poorer.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
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