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A comment on The U.S. will impose duties on solar equipment and washing machines made abroad. Parent comment

Re:The U.S. will impose duties on solar equipment and washin... by Spivak on Monday January 22, 2018 @05:37PM (#16208716)
Protectionist politicians have always had an answer.

* Manufacturing them at home is better for local workers and provides a straightforward path for dispaced workers from other plant work.

* Trying to compete on even terms with what is essentially slave labor overseas drags us all down.

* There is value in economic independence, especially when you're importing from a fairweather ally. You don't want to wipe out a local industry that you might need to lean on someday.

The reasons for having tarriffs are apparently obvious to everyone except economists.

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Re:The U.S. will impose duties on solar equipment and washin... by sauwan on Monday January 22, 2018 @07:42PM (#16209719)
* Increased pricing is bad for local installation workers and creates additional displaced workers. Installer jobs greatly exceed manufacturing jobs.

* Innovate on automation.

* Then subsidize our industry, rather than tax imports. Taxing imports simply hurts the industry as a whole. Minnesota solar is a good case study [1]

1 http://midwestenergynews.com/2016/02/15/solar-job-growth-exp...

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