My letter to the editor

Wednesday, January 28, 2009, saw the letter “Insourcing Solutions for the Economy” published in the Bee. The first point I would like to make is this. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the word “insourcing” does not even exist. This is not the fault of the writer of the letter, but it is the fault of the editor of the paper.
My second point is this. The writer of the afore-mentioned letter believed that raising tariffs and stopping foreign trade would save our economy. Did this person ever read their history book? It just so happens that on the morning of the 28th, I was studying the Great Depression.
After the stock market crashed, tariffs were raised and foreign imports and exports became non-existent. The Fordney-McCumber Tariff, passed in 1922, established a wall preventing trade between Europe and the United States. This did not stimulate the economy, but rather crippled it. There was no place for American made goods to go, and the goods produced in America were to highly priced for those citizens who were out of work.
This may seem insignificant to most, but to me it points out a truth that should be glaringly obvious. Americans today are too wrapped up in their own world to take the time to review history. The saying goes, “history repeats itself”; and it does. How can we ever better our circumstances if we do not learn from the mistakes made by those who came before us?