How is Mr Trump’s attempt to restore America’s lost industrial might proceeding? We can’t say overall. But this excellent piece of reporting by Gillian Tett of the Financial Times shines a spotlight on one corner of the Great Man’s project: the pledge to restore a home-grown supply of semiconductor chips, all made in the USA. Once more we urge you to pay your way across the wall: [1] Because we think the article has implications for another one of our favourite tropes: the difficulty of reconciling Nationalism with a belief in Free Markets. But that’s our take, more of which below
WHAT GILLIAN TETT SAYS
Basically, the Pledge is running into all sorts of problems. For one thing, only about 17% of suitably qualified US graduates go into companies that make the chips: the rest seem to prefer almost anything else, a situation which contrasts unfavourably with countries like South Korea and Taiwan. Another is the President’s much vaunted system of tariffs: The CCIA (Computer and Communications Industry Association) has complained that these will significantly increase the costs of building all those new plants which Trump so ardently desires. But the real problem is the supply of skilled labour. With a deficit figure of approximately 175 000 it’s a lot more serious than a football club needing a couple of new strikers. So what to do? They might import skilled workers-but this would run into ferocious opposition from Trump’s MAGA base for whom immigration is the touchstone issue. How about letting some overseas graduates stay on? Runs into the same brick wall. They could try a major reboot of Industrial Policy. Taking a 10% stake in Intel is a tentative step already: but all the evidence suggests that firms seasoned in the hyper competitive, winner-takes- all world of Free Markets don’t always seem to co-operate well together. There’s a lot more in the article, but that’s what stood out for us.
WHAT WE SAY
And why did it stand out? Well, hardened veterans of this blog will recall two of our former posts. One The Kronenburg Question(LSS 7 6 22) highlighted the deep ethical and philosophical questions about ordering a pint of lager, especially for ardent nationalists who wish to build up their own country’s identity and industries. The other, Is Donald Trump a Socialist? (LSS 7 4 25) wryly observed that, whatever his motives, the President was for practical purposes adopting measures formerly advocated by die hard Lefties such as Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill. An implication which would doubtless dismay him, and many of his supporters. Tett’s report suggests that Trump is trying to be both a Free Market Liberal and an economic Nationalist at the same time. We admit one can be a Nationalist: it is an honourable tradition. Or that one can be a Free Market Liberal: an equally honourable calling. But no one can be both for long.
[1] Gillian Tett Why Trump’s Tech dreams are quietly crumbling Financial Times 31 10 26 Subscribe to read
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