A Picture Says a Thousand Words about How the D.C. Swamp Profits from Protectionism

Every so often, I see a powerful visual that leads me to recycle the line about “a picture says a thousand words.”

• The failure of government schools
• Obama’s grim employment data
• Inefficient and excessive welfare
• More capital means higher wages

Today, let’s add to the collection thanks to a chart shared by Scott Lincicome.

As you can see, Trump’s misguided protectionism is bad for all sorts of groups (workers, taxpayers, etc), but one group very clearly is benefiting.

This is a wretched picture of how big government promotes big corruption.

And I should hasten to add that this is not a blanket condemnation of all lobbyists. If someone is hired to help protect against protectionism, that is a noble endeavor.

But if lobbyists are hired to hinder trade, then they are reprehensible.

But I’m digressing. I’ll share one other tweet that captures the sickening level of protectionism/corruption under Trump.

And this was back in January, I wonder what the numbers are today.

The bottom line is that Trump may be doing a decent job of shrinking the number of government bureaucrats, but that’s hardly a sign of progress against the swamp since the lobbyist class is getting fatter and richer.