“The American state of Minnesota has announced that all US flags sold in the state should be of American manufacture, and warned violators of the law, that they would be punished by a 1,000 dollar fine, or imprisoned for three months.”
Lest you think this was some kind of misguided attempt to be patriotic, ignorant of the American tradition of liberty:
“The series of new laws is supported by the Flag Manufacturers’ Association of America. It has complained about a flood of US flags, valued at 5.3 million dollars, imported mostly from China last year.”
Yes, it’s all about the Benjamins, the Flag Manufacturers’ Association of America’s lost Benjamins to overseas competition. Protectionism, a.k.a. corporate welfare, under the cloak of patriotism.
Okay, maybe it’s not all about the Benjamins. Maybe there is some twisted, historically and economically ignorant patriotic sentiment behind this farce as well. Cause free competition and free trade just aren’t American…right? But come on, we know it’s mostly about the money and the FMAA’s fear of real competition.
Read the rest of the story.
Geoffrey is an Aristotelian-Liberal political philosopher and an adjunct instructor for Buena Vista University. His work has appeared in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, the Journal of Value Inquiry, and Transformers and Philosophy. He lives in Edgewood, KY with his wife and two children.
Related posts:
Political Science PhD
Comments on this entry are closed.