Similarities Between Lincoln and Trump

[David Lockmiller]

(08-09-2018 03:13 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  In a speech in Pittsburgh on February 15, 1861, Abraham Lincoln said, "The tariff is to the government what a meal is to the family."

IMO, one of Lincoln's main reasons for his tariff support was he felt the government needed the income to do its business. There was no federal income tax when he said, "The tariff is to the government what a meal is to the family."

In the same speech, President Lincoln said the following:

"I have long thought that if there be any article of necessity which can be produced at home with as little or nearly the same labor as abroad, it would be better to protect that article. Labor is the true standard of value. If a bar of iron, got out of the mines of England, and a bar of iron taken from the mines of Pennsylvania, be produced at the same cost, it follows that if the English bar be shipped from Manchester to Pittsburg, and the American bar from Pittsburg to Manchester, the cost of carriage is appreciably lost. [Laughter.] If we had no iron here, then we should encourage its shipment from foreign countries; but not when we can make it as cheaply in our own country. This brings us back to our first proposition, that if any article can be produced at home with nearly the same cost as abroad, the carriage is lost labor."

What this country experienced decades ago was the Walmart model:

If labor in China to produce the same article plus the cost of shipment from China to the United States was less than the cost of labor of American citizens, then American manufacturers should move their factories making steel, furniture, clothing, etc. overseas to China. Yes, some Americans profited and all Americans had lower costs for these items manufactured in China. The Walmart family became some of the richest Americans and remain so. And, those Americans newly involved in the "carriage" sector transporting Chinese "cheap labor" goods to the American consumers also profited immensely and still do.

I remember a time when a foreign made car was unusual; it is not so anymore even with the additional "carriage" costs. I remember a time when generations of a family worked at the local GM plant or United States Steel plant and made a good living doing so (and, in turn, these American workers supported a local economy); it is not so anymore. Does anyone know where the "rust belt" is? Is it located in China or the United States?

Maybe all of the politicians (then and now) and those Americans that knew the Walmart model would make them rich should have thought much more about their fellow Americans when they had the opportunity to do so and to heed the wise words of Abraham Lincoln as quoted by Roger:

"Labor is the true standard of value."

And, this truism supplemented by another Lincoln observation:

"[W]hile providing revenue for the support of the General Government by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires such an adjustment of the imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country, and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the working men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence."