Saving Jobs by Restricting Imports: Is It Worth the Cost? One area of the U.S. economy that has been protected from international competition is the food and beverage industry. According to a study by the Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., the cost to U.S. consumers of this protection is about $2,947,000,000 per year that U.S. consumers have paid in higher prices for food and beverages. That’s about $10 per person in the United States per year. That might look like a reasonable price to pay to protect jobs, but let’s look more closely.

1. The trade restrictions on food and beverages save about 6,039 jobs per year. How much does it cost U.S. consumers every year for each job saved?

2. Some people who work in the food and beverage industry may make a lot of money, but they don’t average almost $500,000 per year! How much money would U.S. consumers save if the United States got rid of the trade restrictions and paid the 6,039 people in the food and beverage industry protected by trade restrictions each $100,000 per year to sit at home and watch TV?

3. If U.S. consumers took the money they would save if the United States removed trade restrictions on food and beverages and instead spent it buying other things, do you think that this spending would create other jobs?

4. Instead of paying the 6,039 workers each $100,000 per year to stay home and watch TV, is there something else that the United States could do to help these people that would cost only a small fraction of the almost $3 billion a year currently spent on trade protection in the food and beverage industry?

(Hint: It’s what you are doing in your economics class now.)