What the @#$%?

As you may remember, I recently opined that all "intellectually serious" 2008 candidates need to take a realistic view of international trade/globalization. In that post I mentioned I was heartened by John McCain's speech on the subject and I even gave a nod to Hillary Clinton's somewhat supportive remarks. I didn't mention it at the time, but I was a bit leery of Hillary's remarks as she seemed to view globalization as a necessary evil/inescapable threat rather than as an opportunity, but I still gave her credit for a realistic view of the modern world. Now I see this regarding Hillary's support of a 108.3% tariff on Chinese candlemakers!?!?

A little background, ...

In 1845, French economist Frederic Bastiat penned a parodic petition (how 'bout that alliteration) to the French government seeking protection from unfair "foreign" competition for the candle/lamp industry in France. Who was beating up on French light makers? The sun! His appeal waparticularlyry eloquent:

You are on the right track. You reject abstract theories and little regard for abundance and low prices. You concern yourselves mainly with the fate of the producer. You wish to free him from foreign competition, that is, to reserve the domestic market for domestic industry ...

We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price; for the moment he appears, our sales cease, all the consumers turn to him, and a branch of French industry whose ramifications are innumerable is all at once reduced to complete stagnation. This rival, which is none other than the sun, is waging war on us ...

What was Bastiat's proposed remedy?

We ask you to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull's-eyes, deadlights, and blinds -- in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses, to the detriment of the fair industries with which, we are proud to say, we have endowed the country, a country that cannot, without betraying ingratitude, abandon us today to so unequal a combat.

I (and a great many other econ instructors) use Bastiat's petition as a wonderful illustration of how ludicrous the "protection" arguments are if taken to their extremes. I never thought, though, that I'd have such a perfect real-world example to reinforce Bastiat's point. I guess I should thank Hillary for that, but I am becoming more disappointed in her daily. For the most part I've respected her "across the aisle" work as a Senator and I figured the odds were good I'd end up supporting her in '08 (please don't tell Caffeine Mom), but lately she's gone nutty. First there was her support for the flag burning amendment and now this (shortly after her speech about facing up to global competition)? I know she is (smartly) shifting to the center, but this is getting ridiculous. How are we supposed to know what she believes?

Oh, back to her support of the candle tariff, ... Here's her spin:

"This is a real victory for the Syracuse candle-making industry. Our manufacturers deserve a level playing field and we owe it to them to make sure that others do not unfairly circumvent our fair trade practices," Senator Clinton said. "Syracuse has a proud history of candle production but attempts by importers to undercut our producers have put that tradition at risk. I am pleased that the Department of Commerce heeded our call to take action against these unfair practices and recognized the importance of this decision to local producers, especially here in Syracuse. "

Yes, and we USED TO HAVE a proud history of:

• buggy whip production until the automobile came along
• ice house production until home freezers came along
• 8-track tape production until the cassette came along
• cassette tape production until the CD came along
• CD production until ...

All these changes destroyed someone's traditional industry, but if we had protected them we'd still be riding in our buggies, down to the ice house, listening to Foghat on the horse-powered 8-track player.

Seriously, if you have any interest, read the whole thing from Cato. It's pretty good.