There could be a reason why I’m not, in fact, awash with cash from the capitalistic classes. One might be that I’m too small fry to be of any interest to anyone other than the dog - and she can be a bit contrary at times too. Another could be that as a neoliberal - yep, a fully paid up and strident neoliberal - it’s not actually capitalism that I defend or promote. Quite the contrary, it’s markets, the very thing that restrains capitalist rapaciousness. You know, why would the capitalist class fund someone intent on reducing capitalist profits through competition?
A good example of the difference is this story about tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles:
The warning referenced the decision by the European Commission on Wednesday to propose extra duties of between 17pc and 38pc on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) that are imported to the Continent.
The commission has proposed a provisional extra duty of 21pc for Tesla and some other manufacturers, taking the overall level of tariffs to 31pc when the existing 10pc duty is included.
Well, why are they doing this?
One answer - and one I’m actually prone to but not wholly - is that import tariffs belong to the European Union. They’re what is called “own funds” rather than a skim off the top of the national economies which is the rest of the cash they get. Every bureaucracy always, would prefer to have “own funds” rather than those which depend upon politics etc. So, by feeding tariff money to the EU itself we have created an EU which will always argue for higher tariffs.
A second answer is that the people who run the EU are just fuckwits and that’s not an argument I have much sympathy with - for it’s not an argument it’s a clear and obvious truth.
So, let’s instead work out what actually happens here. Who benefits from these tariffs?
Well, if they’re not in place then all the European manufacturers of EVs either shape up or go bust. That’s the first line argument for them in the first place - VW will go bust unless there are tariffs. Hmm, OK.
Well, who loses when a company goes bust? That would be the capitalists who own it then. They lose their money. Oh Dear. How Sad.
Consumers obviously make out like bandits. They get cheaper EVs. Their wages now go further - they can have an EV and also a Sky subscription, they’re richer.
OK, but what abaht the workers? All those workers in the now bust factories? Well, here we’ve got to retreat into a bit of economics. Trade doesn’t affect the number of jobs in an economy it affects which jobs in an economy. How many are in work depends upon the balance of monetary and fiscal policy in that economy. And that’s it. It’s rather an offshoot of Ricardo’s comparative advantage - there’s always something useful you can be doing even if the other folks are better at everything than you are.
Sure, this might mean the car workers go do ballet or something (not that it works that way, the car workers do tractors, the tractor folk do roadside assistance, the AA blokes go gas fitting and there’s that last gas fitter at the end and margin who is now at Sadler’s Wells) but it’s still true. Trade doesn’t change the number of jobs, it changes which they are.
At which point a piece of Adam Smith and therefore something that is definitionally true. The point and purpose of all production is consumption. So, a method of production which increases consumption is a better method. Chinese EVs with a gas fitter at Sadler’s Wells is better than domestic manufacture of EVs. We are richer by more ballet.
OK. So, if the absence of tariffs makes consumers better off - cheaper EVs - and workers after transitions are unaffected then who is it that benefits from tariffs? Well, clearly, it’s the domestic capitalists who don’t go bust and lose the value of their companies.
So, why do we have tariffs on imports? To benefit the local capitalists. And, you know, fuck them. Let’s not have the tariffs.
We might have reached the point where we understand why I’m not showered in capitalist cash, eh?
Of course VW etc wouldn’t be going bust if they were going to be allowed to continue to enhance and sell what they are good at making - ICE cars - which the punters still want to buy.
I suppose the EV tariff is the EU’s compensation for fucking up the business model of its car manufacturing businesses. Not that I’m defending the tariff. But I can see it as a logical quid pro quo for its underlying interference in the operation of markets. That’s what is primarily to be deprecated.