Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>>> 1. The government is charged by the public to maintain and improve the
>>> economy of the country.
>>
>> As Cedric has pointed out, it's not the government's job to maintain and
>> improve the economy. Not in a capitalist country, anyway.
>
> I think what Adam might have meant with "maintain and improve" is "set the
> rules for it to work and prosper". A capitalist country needs a lot of
> rules to work; capitalism is not anarchy.

I agree with your interpretation, but I'm afraid that based on the context 
that's not what Adam had in mind. He wants the government to use tariffs to 
protect selected industries (Adam, correct me if I'm wrong).

>> The real solution to "soften the blow" and protect the workers, is to
>> give them an education. In reality, it is many times cheaper to give
>> every one of the steel workers free college education, than to keep them
>> employed in the steel mill.
>
> It's funny how this both applies to many similar (and at first sight not 
> so
> similar) situations, and at the same time seems to be so difficult to
> implement.
>
> (One of the "at first sight not so similar situations" I'm thinking of is
> the War on Drugs. It seems to be vastly cheaper to provide the addicts 
> with
> proper care in a world where drugs are commercially available than to
> maintain this war.)

You're comparing apples to circuit boards. :)  Free trade and the war on 
drugs have rather different desired outcomes.

> It's funny how the "dependency on foreign countries" argument rarely is
> taken up by the powers when it comes to increasing the public debt (which
> is provided in part by foreign countries :)

:)

Vitaliy 

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