Confessions of a Supply-Side Liberal

“[My daughter Cayley] knows a lot about right and wrong already. She is an active trader in the schoolyard markets for decals, trading cards, and milk bottle caps. Sometimes Cayley wants to trade with her classmate Melissa but Melissa prefers to deal with Jennifer, from the other fourth-grade classroom. Cayley knows how disappointing that can be, but she also knows she can’t force Melissa to trade with her. More important, she knows it would be wrong to try.

Cayley is too morally advanced even to imagine asking her teacher to intervene and prohibit Melissa from trading with ‘foreigners.’ Only a very unpalatable child would attempt such a tactic.

[Pat] Buchanan sees the U.S. Congress as the great national teacher, maintaining order on the schoolyard, making sure that all the children play the way the teachers’ special pets – or special industries – want them to play. My daughter thinks that stinks. She’s right.

Protectionism is wrong because it robs individuals of a basic human right: the freedom to choose one’s trading partners.”