Correcting Unfairness With Govt. Policy Increases It

In a previous CD post, I suggested that the words "fair" (or "unfair" or "unfairly") and "fairness" are two of the most dangerous words in the English language, for reasons including:

As surely as night follows day, people who insist on using those words (e.g. "fair trade," "fair wages") almost always follow with some proposal for government intervention, government regulation, or government force of some kind to correct some perceived "unfairness" and impose their notion of "fairness." And Thomas Sowell has pointed out another danger - "fair" and "fairness" are two words that can mean virtually anything to anybody.

Here's a case in point from today's Parade Magazine:

Billions of dollars in textiles are legally imported each year. But some rogue producers are smuggling their goods into the market, thereby avoiding the tariffs and quotas designed to keep foreign-made goods from unfairly competing against U.S. products.

Notice how the assumption of "unfair foreign competition" has been followed by protectionist trade policy to correct the "unfairness" by favoring domestic producers with tariffs and quotas on foreign textiles. But what about the inevitable unfairness now for domestic consumers, who are forced to pay higher prices because of the protectionism?

Here's an alternative version of the last sentence:

But some rogue producers are smuggling their goods into the market, thereby avoiding the tariffs and quotas designed to unfairly protect domestic textile producers from more efficient foreign competitors, and unfairly force Americans (millions of consumers and hundreds of clothing-producing companies) to pay higher prices for textiles and clothing.

By using government force to correct the "unfairness" suffered by domestic producers, we have created an even greater level of "unfairness" for domestic consumers, since economic theory and empirical evidence show that the cost of trade protection are almost always greater than the benefits, leaving the country worse off. That's why "fair" and "unfair" are dangerous - the public policies designed to correct the "unfairness" actually increase the overall amount of "unfairness" and lower our standard of living. How can that be "fair?"