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Mike Moschos's avatar

Both the USA’s Old Republic — a politically, economically, governmentally, and scientifically decentralized republic — and the Austro-Hungarian Empire — a politically, economically, governmentally, and scientifically centralized dictatorship — had similar external trade policies. But the outcomes of each were extremely different. This is because of the differences in the analytical, deliberation, and decision making structures of those two places. Oren Cass intends to remain de-democratized and in fact even further centralize. So tariffs under his plan run the risk of producing the same results that they did in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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Stephan Cook's avatar

Yes. Tariffs are easily manipulated by who you have access to in power. Better to impose a 5% VAT across all good and services in the US which will not be as politically intrusive and encourage exports and reduce domestic consumption. Tariffs are a terrible idea

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