“Buy American” as a national policy is a really bad idea.

It was a bad idea when President Trump used it to start trade wars and it was a bad idea when President Biden wrote it into his infrastructure bill and then touted it in his State of the Union Address.

Why is it a bad idea? Because it means that some producers rather than trying to compete based on measurable and controllable criteria like price quality and reliability can’t enter this market.. It sends a message to our friends (like Canada, Mexico and Poland, for example) that we are not opening our markets to them.

Imagine if we said we won’t buy from Jews because they support Israel. We can see that as a bad idea. Well “Buy American” is a milder version of the same kind of thinking.

BTW Poland is the worlds best and low cost producer of the type of high carbon steel rails necessary for high speed trains. China buys Polish rail. Do we need an exemption? So the bureaucracy grows, free trade shrinks and cost rise.

Leave trade to merchants where it belongs. I’ll give you an exemption for times of war.

A recently discovered Inukshuk near Piestewa Peak.