The New Protectionism

Abstract

To compete in world trade, we need higher productivity, not more protection. The lessons of history, said U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. Roosevelt argued, has an obligation to care for its citizens who cannot care for themselves. For others the overriding aim should be to provide an opportunity to work, not an opportunity to avoid it. The goal must be rehabilitation rather than relief. U.S. President Richard Nixon would heartily endorse this view. This is the Protestant work ethic an indelible part of the U.S. It is the criterion Americans use to judge welfare programs for the poor, the disadvantaged, the underprivileged. Curiously enough, it is not the standard employed in evaluating welfare programs for the rich, the powerful, the vested interests of corporate the U.S. Welfare programs, it would seem, are not instituted evenhandedly instituted evenhandedly.