A number of political leaders have expressed concern about the nation's decline as a major steel producer. Many have advocated policies to restrict imports and promote domestic production. These individuals would see their position weakened most by the knowledge that____________.A. the government has historically shown limited ability to promote the production of any good B. the substitution of domestic steel for foreign steel absorbs resources that would otherwise produce goods of greater value C. foreign governments have generally not supported/subsidized production in their countries D. many products using steel can be produced with aluminum instead E. steel production is a high-pollution activity.

This type of policy is really controversial since politicians like to announce public policies that may help their constituents on the short run, but will eventually end up damaging them and the whole country on the long run.

A clear example is coal mining. Coal mining was praised during the last election and even though some new jobs have been created in that industry, the overall effect in the country is extremely negative and offsets any positive outcome. Coal mining results in heavy pollution and it is also not economically profitable. The resources invested in coal mines could generate much higher benefits for everyone, investors, workers and the government if they were used to finance some other activity.

Currently the government has limited the imports on foreign steel and the domestic production hasn't been able to increase enough to cover the manufacturing needs of American companies and it resulted in higher steel prices and an increase in manufacturing costs.

Market rules apply to everyone and every country. Sometimes it is not possible to produce certain goods at a competitive price no matter how hard we try and the country's well being is negatively affected. Much better results can be obtained by focusing on certain industries where American businesses really excel instead of always trying to favor inefficient industries that have a high lobby power.