London Mayor Warns of Protectionism

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, recently published an article with the Telegraph.co.uk arguing against the protectionist tendencies our leaders are likely to take during the oncoming economic collapse. I would recommend it to you to read here. One of his better points:

Let us imagine that the boot were on the other foot. How would we feel if some of the hundreds of superb British engineering consultancies were suddenly told that they were not welcome in China, or Italy, or any other market in which they have flourished over the past century?

It would be a disaster for those companies, and for their workers, and for Britain's ability to earn foreign exchange. Imagine if the world were convulsed by nationalistic and chauvinistic strikes along the lines we are seeing in Britain today. There would be a catastrophic collapse in world trade, and a fall in global economic activity. The overall pie of wealth would shrink, and so would our national slice.

What kind of British industry do the protectionists think would emerge? Some sort of crazy autarkic system in which we tried to substitute imports with home-made PlayStations and home-made shoes and brassieres once again produced in the cotton mills of Lancashire? We would not only be forcing British consumers to accept second-rate goods; we would be impoverishing them by obliging them to pay more.