U.S. jobs rose from 71 million in 1970 to 150 million in 2021.

Protectionism certainly saves jobs in the specific industry being protected but, for two reasons, it costs jobs in

other unprotected industries. First, if consumers are paying higher prices to the protected industry, they

inevitably have less money to spend on goods from other industries, and so jobs are lost in those other

industries. Second, if a firm sells the protected product to other firms, so that other firms must now pay a

higher price for a key input, then those firms will lose sales to foreign producers who do not need to pay the

higher price. Lost sales translate into lost jobs. The hidden opportunity cost of using protectionism to save jobs

in one industry is jobs sacrificed in other industries. This is why the United States International Trade

Commission, in its study of barriers to trade, predicts that reducing trade barriers would not lead to an overall
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