What, then is so bad about President-elect Trump paying, telling, or forcing Carrier, Rexnord, and American firms generally not to outsource American jobs to Mexico?
About 800 Americans now working for Carrier benefit from the President-elect’s actions. Here are five costs of his approach.
1 It is unfair to other Americans.
2 It weakens American firms relative to their foreign competitors.
3 It does long run economic harm to the U.S.
4 It abandons any pretense of free trade on a level playing field.
5 It is easily abused.
President-elect Trump’s approach is unfair to other Americans: consumers, taxpayers, and employees of other firms.
Forcing Carrier to pay higher labor costs than they could pay in Mexico will make Carrier gas furnaces more expensive. Some American Carrier employees win, while everyone in the market to buy a gas furnace loses. Many of those losers are American consumers. Mr. Trump is helping a few American workers a lot and hurting many more American consumers a little. These consumer losses increase the more one replicates this policy.
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