Henry George and the Contemporary Debate over Industrial Protectionism |
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| Authors: | Robert J Rafalko |
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| Institution: | [Robert J. Rafalko, Ph.D., is a member of the department of philosophy and religion of the University of North Carolina/Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403-3297.] The author thanks Philip E. Devine, Leonard Champney, Gerald Zurat and John Kelly, who read an earlier draft of this paper and made helpful suggestions. He is especially grateful to Stanley Grossof the Scranton Local of the International Ladies Garment Workers'Union, who supplied him with I.L.G.W.U. position papers on Protectionism. He also thanks Vincent Ponko, the University of Scranton and the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, whose assistance made this project possible. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract . The central question of Henry George's 1886 book. Protection or Free Trade, commemorated now after a century, was: do protectionist policies help or hinder the working man Have George's concerns in 1886 since become outdated or anachronistic? If not, what are some historic trends toward protectionism since that time? Some of the formal arguments for and against protectionism are examined. George contended that protectionism threatens labor unions and reduces workers’wages. An apparent counterexample is provided by the International Ladies’Garment Workers’Union, which now actively lobbies for protectionist legislation. Its arguments have merit when protectionism is viewed instrumentally, but one must recognize that there are substantive objections to protectionism as a comprehensive national policy. George linked protectionism to paternalism; his theory of economic value as well as his model of the rational economic man are derived from basic democratic principles which stand at sharp odds with the implicit paternalism of tariff policies. |
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