Their specific effects upon consumers and foreign and domestic producers, tariffs diminish the

world’s real output.

C) Groundlessness of protection measures

First, protective tariffs are needed to preserve or strengthen industries producing strategic goods

And materials essential for defense or war. The argument here is not economic, but rather it is of

A political-military nature.

It contends very plausibly that in an uncertain world political-military objectives (self-sufficiency)

Must take precedence over economic goals (efficiency in the allocation of world resources).

Unfortunately, there is no objective criterion for weighing the relative worth of the increase in

National security, on the one hand, and the decrease in productive efficiency on the other, which

Accompany the reallocation of resources toward strategic industries when such tariffs are imposed.

The economist can only call attention to the fact that certain economic costs are involved when

Tariffs are levied to enhance military self-sufficiency.

When achieved through tariffs, self-sufficiency gives rise to costs in the form of higher domestic

Prices on the output of the shielded industry.

Secondly, this “save American, Russian, British, French, etc., jobs” argument for tariffs becomes

Increasingly fashionable as an economy encounters a recession. It is rooted in macroanalysis.