And then the calculus changes and it's overall cheaper for people to buy from overseas factories. There's nothing inherently wrong with that either, but it doesn't solve the "we need jobs" problem that politicians claim to be trying to solve.
Its not that simple. Remember the the predominance of American economy is not self-generated: it is a part of the world economy. Now, when you create artificial barriers like import taxes, American businesses become less competitive in the world market, as such tarriffs do not exist there. Over time, they stop innovating until they reach a crisis point.
e.g. see what happened to the big American automakers. They have a monopoly on trucks in the US and yet they became uncompetitive to the point of almost going bankrupt.
Cheap imports allow for cost savings so the money otherwise spent on expensive domestic goods could be made elsewhere.
We tried raising tariffs to protect local businesses and consumers in the 1930s and all we got was a lousy world war.
The only time broad tariffs genuinely worked in America's interests was under Jefferson, when his devastating tariff hikes jump-started the industrial economy.
I'm no history expert, but I think it's fair to say that a solution for a pre-industrial backwater might not work as well when it comes to a (then unimaginable) technological, military, and economic superpower.
To paraphrase Paul Krugman on government spending, trade is a two way street where your spending is my income and my spending is your income.
Import taxes might give you a win in the short-term, but they are harmful over the long-term, especially when our trading partners retaliate. This makes American manufacturers / exporters less competitive in overseas markets. And as Jack Ma said "when trade stops, war starts". Reducing international trade is a Bad Thing in the general sense.
