Tariffs and subsidies are a hot topic at the moment, with global trade affecting the market each day. But who exactly are tariffs hurting and helping? Dan Allford, president and founder of ARC Specialties, delivers his perspective on this episode of The Roboticist Chronicles.

Allford, a proponent of a global free market, described how his boyhood job of selling papers ignited a deep appreciation for free market capitalism.

“Very early on I saw the connection between effort and reward,” Allford said, describing the beauty of America’s self-made-man economy. But when tariffs and subsidies make their way into the free-market Dan explained, “creative destruction,” occurs, upending the natural homeostasis of who survives in a free and fair marketplace.

“If you have an unlevel playing field, and that’s either subsidies or tariffs, either one distorts this field. And so what you’re doing is rewarding people that truly should have failed,” Allford said.

He elaborates with historical examples of trade between Brazil, France, Germany, and of course, China, giving examples of how tariffs and subsidies have handicapped industries that are now unable to survive without aid.

“We don’t need protection, we need opportunities to innovate,” Allford said, pointing to America’s naturally scrappy, competitive nature. At the heart of a growing economy is innovation, the natural push that keeps humanity at the forefront of technology, robotics, and mechanization.

Get to know Dan’s Darwinian economic point of view in this timely episode of The Roboticist Chronicles.

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