Intellectual Property, Tariffs, Trade, and History

     In addition to the recently announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from most of the world, today Trump put tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese imports. The justification is Chinese theft of intellectual property. Intellectual property is just a misleading framing in our legal system of ideas as property. Since ideas are non-rival (using an idea doesn't prevent anyone else from using it), the need for property right protections isn't readily apparent to me but I digress.

     The Industrial Revolution started in the US when some guy, Samuel Slater, stole "intellectual property" from the UK by memorizing the designs of textile mills. He built a mill in the Northeastern US; other industrialists took notice and built similar mills. It is to humanity's great benefit that Slater did this (out of self-interest btw). The spreading of new technology undermined the UK's monopoly power in this industry, increasing competition and delivering greater benefits more widely.

     Now China is doing the same, but we get mad about it. It does not harm the average worker that China is doing so, just the opposite. It harms would-be monopolist capital owners who want to be shielded from competition in order to reap un-earned economic rents at the expense of everyone else. 

In another moronic statement, Trump claimed:

"Our Nation was founded by farmers. Our independence was won by farmers. And our continent was tamed by farmers." 

     This fits in to the narrative about shielding capital owners from competition because farmers love that shit. But don't believe the hype. First, regarding our  founding farmers, I believe he means slave owners. To quote Hamilton (the musical), "we know who's really doing the planting." The instigators of the revolution were an alliance of Southern plantation owners and Northern merchants. Both groups resented the mercantilist trade restrictions the UK was placing on the colonies. 

     Now the last sentence about taming the continent, I guess maybe. Farmers were always right behind the soldiers and militias that carried out the genocidal land grab that formed our nation's boundaries (not that they're unique among Americans in benefiting from genocide). Sounds like we only care about property rights when its our own property.