President Trump
is considering a tariff on foreign steel imports. A tariff is a tax, and it’s a
bad idea. It’ll cause U.S. unemployment to rise and U.S. income to fall. Here’s
why:
The U.S. steel
industry has 140 thousand workers. U.S. companies that use steel have about six
million workers – more than forty times more.
With a tariff
imposed, the price of steel will rise, making the prices of products that use
steel rise as well. The increases will lower the demand for these products,
causing some of the six million workers to be laid off.
The income lost by
the laid-off employees of companies that use steel will outweigh the income
gained by the employees of companies that make steel.
Not only that, companies
that are protected by tariffs generally stop innovating, preventing future
prices from falling.
Tariffs cause
more harm than good.
Sent
to newspapers July 19, 2017.
