Updated 3 months ago
Trade wars have no winners. The only people who can’t understand this are those who see life as a zero-sum game, where in order to advance, you need to take down somebody else, and win-win doesn’t exist.
Furthermore, “dumping” is a loaded, manipulative word. If one country decides to make ultracheap, well-made items, they’re not sneaky villains – they’re benefiting humanity. What about all those lost T-shirt making jobs, you may ask? Well, those people are freed up to make something else, that they’re better at making – or move out of manufacturing entirely and go up the food chain into services and tech. Plus, rather than spend more on T-shirts, they can use that money for other things.
This has been the story of the global economy since World War II, and it served us well. America has by far been the primary beneficiary. Thanks to this system, far from being the loser, the sucker, the schmuck… the US has dominated everything.
And this all now coming to an end. The only ones cheering are our rivals and those who celebrate America’s humiliation.
Milton Friedman 101
