I guess people would claim, plausibly, that if we had sanctions or tariffs against China, everyone in Australia would be forced to choose a different, more expensive, supplier and therefore it would be less individually detrimental for each Australian business to trade with others instead. Of course, we have to compete globally not just domestically, so that sort of policy wouldn’t be sustainable unless other countries did the same thing. It is ridiculously easy to concoct Prisoners’ Dilemma problems all over the place, such that it has become the reputable excuse for all types of centralised decision-making.
Yes, I see it as no more hypotcritical than Warren Buffet saying the rich should be taxed more, but then continuing to pay the existing tax rates. There are major free rider issues and hoizontal equity issues at play here, and I think dismissing the view as hypocritical is a tad simplistic.
Andrew Norton 
A good reason to be glad people are capable of hypocrisy. Our hardly considered ideals would often be disasterous if implemented!
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I guess people would claim, plausibly, that if we had sanctions or tariffs against China, everyone in Australia would be forced to choose a different, more expensive, supplier and therefore it would be less individually detrimental for each Australian business to trade with others instead. Of course, we have to compete globally not just domestically, so that sort of policy wouldn’t be sustainable unless other countries did the same thing. It is ridiculously easy to concoct Prisoners’ Dilemma problems all over the place, such that it has become the reputable excuse for all types of centralised decision-making.
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Yes, I see it as no more hypotcritical than Warren Buffet saying the rich should be taxed more, but then continuing to pay the existing tax rates. There are major free rider issues and hoizontal equity issues at play here, and I think dismissing the view as hypocritical is a tad simplistic.
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