March 14, 2018
Thomas Friedman used his column today to trash Trump for protecting old-line industries like steel and aluminum and argued instead that US trade policy should be, “[…]focused on protecting what we do best — high-value-added manufacturing and intellectual property.” In this vein, he argued for rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and very high tariffs on China unless it respects our protectionist policies in these areas. Oh yeah, Friedman also wants to toss a few bones to the less-educated workers who might lose jobs but will pay higher prices for prescription drugs, software, and a wide range of other items with Friedman’s agenda.
Just to get our eyes on the ball, if anyone were approaching these issues seriously, they would be asking how much additional innovation we get for how much additional patent and copyright protection. (Anyone seen any analysis on this one?) The question would then be both, is the additional inequality from stronger and longer protections justified by the additional innovation and is there an alternative mechanism (e.g. direct public funding) that could be comparable efficient and yield less inequality. (This is discussed in my [free] book, Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer, chapter 5.)
For some reason, it seems no one likes to talk about the link between patent and copyright protection and inequality. Remember, Bill Gates would probably still be working for a living without these government-granted monopolies.
Comments