· Trade deficit is not necessarily a bad thing
o It doesn’t technically exist, for the money always ends up back to us
o Globalized economy makes it so all trade ends up back in the original country
§ i.e. money belongs to everyone
o If states with massive trade deficits or surpluses, it would not affect how they act as a country
o Trade statistics are really not meaningful entities
· You are free not to trade with people
· In the modern world, you can’t really “trade local” and get everything you need
· Protectionism
o Is actually counter to the idea of “caring about the poor”
o Aren’t we forgetting about the benefits that foreign workers are going to get by finally getting decent jobs that were formerly American
o Protectionism only screws the poor
· But doesn’t disemployment cost to each worker (the few) exceed the cost of consumption savings by the many?
o Does it follow that if costs are concentrated and benefits dispersed, we should weigh costs more heavily
§ Difficulty: Abolition of slavery in American south
o Would you approve of a $1.00 head tax on every single American, with the proceeds distributed to one or two people?
§ After all, you can readily claim that most Americans wouldn’t even be aware of a tax that small, while the “winners” would be fabulously happy
o Any economic change raises the same issue. As we have and will continue to explaore, trade is simply a non-technical form of production
§ E.G. Emergence of vaccines threatens to put some surgeons out of business
· In a world of trade, the environment benefits because we can gain the goods we need from other countries rather than having to take up all the land in America to produce what we need here
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