Socialist governments love tariffs, to ruin

When I first went to Brazil 40 years ago, I was stunned when I learned about import tariffs. In an attempt to protect national industries, Brazil imposed a tax of 250 percent on imported automobiles. They went further, imposing import taxes on roughly 90 percent of all imports. In less than four years, inflation was over 100 percent per month.

Every company I worked with had a person who collected the mail every morning and ran to the bank to deposit checks, which would depreciate in value in a day. American companies, including mine, quoted everything in U.S. dollars and most of them still do.

Virtually every South American government, starting in 1980, elected socialists to rule. The economies of each of the socialist countries collapsed within a few years, some of them in a matter of months. In 1995, Brazil elected Henrique Cardoso as president. Within a few days of taking office, he removed over 90 percent of the import tariffs, which caused the economy to skyrocket. Brazil had the greatest economic advance in their history. The next president, Luiz Inacio Lula, promptly reissued the previous tariffs and the economy collapsed within six months.

Politicians with little real experience continue to make the same mistake. They think by being elected to office, they suddenly become geniuses who know more than the average voter and try to “help” us.

Import tariffs have never “helped” local industry, long term. The geniuses do not read, much less understand Adam Smith or other economists who explain how market forces level the playing field and maintain stable economies.

Perhaps one of the most ironic political statements ever made, was when Ecuador was a socialist government, it adopted the U.S. dollar as its currency since the national currency, the sucre, had collapsed and was worthless.

Every country in the world that has imposed import tariffs has suffered, most of them experiencing incredible inflation as their money became worthless. JIM CANNON

Mt. Lebanon The writer is an international marketing consultant.

Unions work

Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. is spot on (July 28, “Make ‘Bad Jobs’ Better”) but overlooks one solution to some of these problems: labor unions.

History tells us unions have negotiated fair wages, eighthour work days, overtime pay, health and welfare packages like pensions, job safety, medical leave, job equality and job training, amid other benefits.

Yet we still see declining union membership. Employees that are part of a bargaining unit are under 12 percent in America. Under 7 percent of private sector employees are unionized. Janus vs. AFSCME dealt a major blow to labor and will only weaken unions in their bargaining ability.

We have now, and need more, men and women of integrity to lead our unions. There is strength in numbers. We have the ability to make “bad jobs” better in spite of the Supreme Court’s decision. MIKE PATTON Level Green

‘Socialism’ here

I read the July 27 column by Cal Thomas titled “Socialist Seduction,” which began: “For the current generation, sometimes referred to as millennials, it appears one thing is more seductive than sex — and that’s socialism.”

I don’t need statistics to know that just isn’t true because I was young once myself and sex was much more seductive. However Mr. Thomas does give a statistic. In a GenForward Survey of Americans, age 18 to 34, 45 percent have a “positive view of socialism.” What, do you suppose, is the percentage of that sample having a “positive view” of sex?

Mr. Thomas has three “takeaways” from the popularity of socialism. The first is “that those who favor socialism have never lived in a country where it is practiced.” (He recommends “a few months in Venezuela.) I have lived in a country where socialism is practiced and I have been a beneficiary of it as both a student and teacher in the public school system, the most socialistic program in American history. I didn’t pay for my schooling, nor did my parents. Taxpayers did, and I now pay for other people’s children’s education and we all profit from doing so.

I now draw Social Security payments and I have Medicare insurance. I even have a Golden Age Passport which admits me free to our national parks just because I am an old American who shouldn’t have to pay to see the beauty of his own country.

Mr. Thomas’ second “takeaway” is that today’s children have been pampered by their parents (misinformed comrades to him), and the third takeaway is that millennials are “spoiled rotten” by not having to serve in the military. I am old enough to have known many people who were not “spoiled rotten” — people who endured the Great Depression, and who were the beneficiaries of the socialistic acts of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) provided jobs for the unemployed and the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act) allowed farmers to keep their farms.

The people saved by the “alphabet soup” of the New Deal weren’t poor because they were lazy as Mr. Thomas would have you believe. They had been impoverished by the failure of the “free market,” from which he believes all benefits flow.

The point is that the socialism of the New Deal got America through the Great Depression and World War II ended it. When the war finally ended and the troops returned to their homes, many went to college on the GI Bill, free schooling which educated a generation and kept the job market from being flooded. More successful socialism.

Socialism may not be as seductive as sex, but it has appeal. BILL EBNER

Forest Hills