Frank Hollenbeck

Free trade brings abundance — protectionism brings scarcity

September 29, 2016

Basic Economics

In a targeted attack against trade with China, Donald Trump claimed that America has lost high paying manufacturing jobs to China because China promotes its exports through subsidies, tax advantages, and currency manipulations. The reality is that we should not care what China does. The more China subsidizes its industries, the more we gain in the abundance of cheap goods and services and, contrary to what Trump believes, in the creation of high paying jobs. We want abundance and high productivity In an exchange economy, there is a natural antagonism of sorts between producers