No, not sunscreen. Economist Donald Boudreaux has something else in mind, as he makes the following point to argue against protectionism:
So do you, Mr. Protectionist, also believe that Uncle Sam should force us Americans to pay a high tariff on sunlight before we are allowed to use it? After all, sunlight is an enormously beneficial product that Americans routinely import at no cost at all! (The sun charges us nothing for the valuable heat and light that it exports to us daily.) Don't you worry that this dirt-cheap import that floods our market every day unfairly shrinks the market for American-made goods such as light bulbs, flashlights, central-heating units and down blankets?
If you don't support blocking sunlight with a tariff or with some other government restriction -- why not? Please explain how one low-cost yet valuable import (sunlight) differs from other low-cost yet valuable imports (such as steel from China or textiles from Malaysia).
