When Donald Trump won the US presidential election, the whole world was shocked. Few people outside the US expected anything good, and for a year and a half one disaster followed another. Millions of US citizens were deprived of affordable health care, nothing was done to lessen the widespread carnage caused by lax gun control, a ban was placed on immigrants from select Muslim countries, the US was withdrawn from Paris Agreement on climate change to free control of polluting oil and coal industries, and US allies in NATO came under severe criticism, while President Putin of Russia was treated as a friend. These were all actions that many people expected and feared. But now, by introducing tariffs on imported goods, Trump has taken a small step toward a better world.
With the great increase in international travel and communication, and especially since the advent of the Internet, there are engineers in every country with advanced design and manufacturing skills. Therefore, we should move towards a situation where everything that a country needs is made in that country by the people of that country. In this way, the need for international trade is minimized, restricted to essential raw materials and food that are not available in the country of destination. Large reductions in fossil fuel consumption could be achieved, reducing air and sea pollution and slowing global warming.
For several decades, large companies have been jumping from one country to another in search of cheap labor and, at the same time, seeking to sell their products in all countries. As a result, wage rates have increased in poor countries and have remained more or less stagnant in advanced countries from which industries have fled. As the gap closes, the advantages of seeking the cheapest labor become smaller. At the same time, selling more products and services requires customers to have income at a level that makes them affordable. As Henry Ford is said to have said: if you don’t pay your workers well, who is going to buy your cars? This is how America got rich in the first place from American companies selling to Americans.
Now all countries can begin to become like the old United States: providing a good life for its people with a vibrant domestic market and minimal foreign trade. Putting tariffs on imports to protect American jobs and persuade Americans to buy more domestically produced goods is a step toward this utopia that other countries are rushing to follow. Every cloud has a silver lining, and Trump’s promised trade war could herald a better peace for all.
