In the United States, and much of the free world, we’ve imposed costs on ourselves that we do not want to pay. We pay our people well, when compared to world standards, and we require our industries to invest in and operate equipment that protects our environment. US compensation includes health and welfare safety net provisions that PRC workers have never seen; US companies meet emissions requirements while their PRC competitors belch discharges that would secure the wrath of US regulators. In practice, the Communist Party of China turns noble US requirements into competitive advantages by disregarding similar requirements in the PRC.

Still, when PRC companies offer what could be made here, but at prices unburdened by care for individuals or concern for the earth, we buy from them anyway. We don’t like paying prices burdened by our own policies.

This is not all bad. Cheaper goods allow Americans to work fewer hours to buy what we want. Saving time and money, however, encourages us to ignore the PRC’s ignoble treatment of people and nature. Like wanting to eat cake and still have it, we consume cheap goods and pretend that PRC manufacturers protect their workers and our world’s ecosystems.

One way to stop this: the US could quantify disregarded cost components of imported goods and use that information to more precisely tune tariffs. Reasonable social safety net provisions and environmental protection outlays are the expenses that the Communist Party disregards and refuses to pay. The US could “right-size” tariffs by requiring PRC sellers to deposit amounts equated to the disregarded costs with the US Treasury. Without a change like this, Americans effectively finance adversarial regimes that degrade both people and nature.