Reply #27: Calculate the tax loss of a dollar sent overseas.

[gulliver]

Then add it back to the cost of the import. For example, let's say a widget costs $100 to manufacture here. Part of that $100 is income and payroll tax. Let's say $20. The other $80 goes to natural resources and other components for which suppliers receive a profit (on which they pay taxes). So let's say just the first iteration is $30 in tax money lost to the government per widget.

So let's say a widget costs $50 to import. Simply add $30 to it as a tariff due to taxes lost to the government by overseas manufacture. Then calculate the loss to the government of all of the downstream costs of people losing their jobs. Let's say that is $20 per widget. The money goes into funding scholarships, grants, and industrial infrastructure. Add that back as a tariff. Now the imported widget costs $100.

I just never see the value to the country of a dollar spent here vs. a dollar spent overseas calculated. I realize I have oversimplified it here. I just have a hunch that the vast majority of the profits being made on the back of those cheap foreign workers aren't going to the workers. Therefore, taking most of the profits out of overseas imports seems like a fine thing. Build it overseas, reimport it, and all of your profits get taxed away.

Same goes for radiology, accounting, and software intellectual goods.