Buy Team America?

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Ludwig von Mises Institute:

 

Buy Team America?

 

Mises Daily:Thursday, August 16, 2012 by Gary Galles

 

Samuel Johnson once wrote that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," criticizing adverse policies and proposals falsely claimed to be based in patriotism. This has been most recently illustrated by the political furor over "made-in-China" Team USA uniforms. Many politicians asserted that it was un-American, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying those uniforms should be burned. Supposedly patriotic pressures to mandate "buying American" sprang up immediately, and Ralph Lauren quickly capitulated, promising to "go and sin no more."

While some of the details of this flap are unusual, protectionism dressed up as patriotism follows a well-worn script.

Imports are found to cause some domestic harm. Given that those imports harm competing domestic producers, "Buy American" or some other version of protectionism is put forth as the patriotic response (with the producers seeking protection from superior competitors leading the patriotism bandwagon). The Team USA version simply exploits the Olympics' peak in pro-American sentiment and symbolism to make the same case (though it makes no more sense than requiring that we grow our own coffee and bananas for our athletes).

The problem is that imports always harm competing read more http://mises.org/daily/6148/Buy-Team-America