Smuggled American-Made Cars Destroyed In The Philippines
A reader sent me this video report about the Philippine government destroying cars (some American-made) that were smuggled into their country.
Smuggling isn’t a good thing, but isn’t there a better approach to this situation than the government attempting to intimidate the smugglers into quitting the smuggling of cars Philippinos apparently want? Why not just drop the trade restrictions and let the Philippinos buy the cars they want?
Smuggling or a black market is something that happens when the government attempts to ban the sale or trade of something the people want. Sometimes, like in the case of child pornography, that’s a good thing. Because kiddie porn is exploitive of children. But in the case of automobiles, what good reason is there to deny free citizens access to products they want to buy? Free trade is freedom. Free trade means being able to select any product or service that meets your criteria for quality and price provided by companies from all over the world. The more choices you have, the more likely you will be to be satisfied by what you’re getting.
This applies to, say, goods from China sold in America. China wouldn’t be selling things in America if Americans weren’t buying them. So what good reason do we have to deny free Americans the ability to access goods they actually want to buy?
Protectionism isn’t freedom. Protectionism is corruption and political cronyism and has no place in a free society.
