Beneath all the tariff craziness — the taxes on islands inhabited only by penguins, the pseudo-profound mathematical definition of “reciprocal”, the idea that the settled trade policy of every other country on the planet somehow constitutes an emergency, and enough U-turns to make a ballerina dizzy — it is easy to lose sight of a basic fact: even a modest and predictable tariff is still a modest and predictable act of foolishness.
Let’s start with a simple truth about a complicated world. Everybody has to trade with somebody. Attempting complete self-sufficiency would, in the very best-case scenario, produce a Robinson Crusoe existence in which every waking minute had to be devoted to piercing coconuts or repairing the treehouse roof. The worst-case scenario would be to die simultaneously of starvation, exposure and an infected scratch.
A vivid example of this truth is The Toaster Project, the brainchild of conceptual artist Thomas Thwaites. Two decades ago, Thwaites decided to make a simple toaster from scratch. He found himself thwarted at every turn: iron smelting proved impossible without a microwave oven, starch-based plastic was eaten by hungry snails and nickel could be obtained only by purchasing commemorative coins. “I realised that if you started absolutely from scratch, you could easily spend your life making a toaster,” he told me. His toaster eventually cost about £1,000. It did not work.