Tariffs Are The Only Way To Restore Long-Term Economic Health

America has become addicted to cheap foreign baubles and easy money (i.e., fake fiat currency) at the expense of its long-term economic health. We allowed ourselves to be transformed from a cast iron economy that made things into a largely paper economy that depends on the good graces of foreign nations for its survival. This is a recipe for civilizational suicide.

We don’t make our own weapons, food, machines, vehicles, plastics, medicines, or computers. The whole Covid insanity, with its shutdowns and shortages and supply-chain chaos, was a blaring alarm warning us that the economy we thought was so strong was shockingly fragile.

Imagine a prosperous farmer, now surrounded by enemies and competitors, who, over time, outsourced most farming activities to his neighbors because they could do the work and provide the materials more cheaply than he could. He sold off his equipment and laid off his farmhands because it was just easier and less expensive for others to do the work and maintain the machinery.

But one day, his neighbors said, “No more,” and now he finds himself unable to fertilize his land, plow his fields, or harvest his crops. Even if he had kept his old tractors and implements, he sold off all his welding equipment and spare parts and raw materials, so repairing anything would be impossible. On top of that, he doesn’t remember all that much about repairing the equipment anyway because he hasn’t done it for years.

So now he finds himself in control of once-fertile and productive land that he can’t utilize, and the people he used to rely on for help now refuse to lift a finger because they see an opportunity to bankrupt their old neighbor and business partner, allowing them to buy up all that land for themselves at fire sale prices.

That’s where America is now as a country. We stripped our economy down and sold it for parts, happy to have the cash in our pockets and ignorant of the possibility the good times could ever end.

President Donald Trump has understood these dynamics for decades and is trying to reset our priorities to give us an economy that isn’t built on a foundation of paper. That requires resetting all of our trade relationships and recreating the conditions that built an economy and civilization that together were the envy of the world.

There will, of course, be some short-term pain as part of that process. Muscles must ache before they grow stronger. Addicts have to go through withdrawal before they can come out clean on the other side. In fact, the angry reactions from self-styled “free traders” who have gotten rich off of our leaders mortgaging our country’s long-term economic health for short-term cash resemble the drug dealer enraged that one of his best customers is about to go clean. “You’ll never survive the withdrawal symptoms,” he says. “You want what I’m selling. You need it. You can’t live without it.”

The reality is we cannot survive if we continue to remain addicted to cheap foreign crap. We cannot survive if we are unable to make our own food and medicine and vehicles and weapons and computers. A farmer who is wholly dependent upon his enemies to plow and seed and fertilize and harvest his land is a farmer who will starve. Likewise, a nation that depends entirely on its enemies to power its economy is a nation destined to become history rather than shape it.

Sean Davis is CEO and co-founder of The Federalist. He previously worked as an economic policy adviser to Gov. Rick Perry, as CFO of Daily Caller, and as chief investigator for Sen. Tom Coburn. He was named by The Hill as one of the top congressional staffers under the age of 35 for his role in spearheading the enactment of the law that created USASpending.gov. Sean received a BBA in finance from Texas Tech University and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurial management from the Wharton School. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].