Before our demands of cheap TVs...

From "America and Foreign Trade" by James Muir Waller from Who Owns America? published 1936.

The idea that foreign trade is necessary or even desirable for our political and economic well-being should be abandoned. We should look solely to the domestic market, the world's largest and richest, for a place to sell the products of our fields and factories. We should move quickly toward creating a completely self-contained national economy as the best cornerstone on which to build a safe and permanent American prosperity, untouched by the political and economic turmoil of the outside world. The best method to bring about self-sufficiency would be to devise immediately a program of protection for all manufactured articles and raw commodities that can be produced in the United States, even if the cost here is very much greater than abroad. These higher costs may result from unfavorable natural factors such as soil, climate, and mineral resources, as well as from higher wages and taxes.

One can dream, can't one? Obviously, today we are no longer the largest market, but still how has free trade benefitted everyone again?

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