The following is from my new, WND.Com column, “Libertarian (Trade) Deficits”:
“… I am confident the legendary Lou Dobbs understands that voluntary exchanges are by definition advantageous to their participants. Costco, my hair stylist, and the GTI dealer—all have products or skills I want. Within this voluntary, mutually beneficial relationship, I give up an item I value less, for something I value more: a fee for the desired product or service. My trading partners, whose valuations are in complementary opposition to mine, reciprocate in kind. Silhouetted by the force of the state, this synchronized, magic market starts to splutter, and people suffer. That’s a no-brainer.
However, when it comes to the glories of an aggregate, negative balance of trade, allow me to respond to the typical libertarian post-graduate cleverness, as evinced by Dr. Boudreaux. In one respect libertarians are right: there is nothing wrong with my running a trade deficit with Costco, my hair stylist, or my GTI dealer, as I do—just so long as I pay for my purchases. The data demonstrate that Americans, in general, don’t.
All in all, by Vox Day’s account, ‘U.S. households, corporations and various levels of government’ owe fifty three trillion dollars! The consumption being lauded by libertarians is debt-driven consumption. In this context, a trade deficit is significant, inasmuch as it reflects not an increase in wealth but an increase in indebtedness.
To dismiss the gap between U.S. exports and U.S. imports as an insignificant economic indicator—now that’s silly. ” …
The complete column is “Libertarian (Trade) Deficits”
Read my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society.
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