… is from pages 476-477 of the 5th edition (2015) of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics:
At one time, it was believed that importing more than was exported impoverished a nation because the difference between import and exports had to be paid in gold, and the loss of gold was seen as a loss of national wealth. However, as early as 1776, Adam Smith’s classic The Wealth of Nations argued that the real wealth of a nation consists of its goods and services, not its gold supply.
Too many people have yet to grasp the full implications of that, even in the twenty-first century. If the goods and services available to the American people are greater as a result of international trade, then Americans are wealthier, not poorer, regardless of whether there is a “deficit or a “surplus” in the international balance of trade.
Yes. And it matters not how Americans (or, more generally, how denizens of whatever country is considered to be the ‘domestic’ one) gain greater access to goods and services produced globally.
If the Chinese become zealous devotees of a religion whose doctrine requires that they serve Americans by shipping to Americans goods and services free of charge, then Americans are made better off. If the Chinese innovate in ways that lower their costs of production – and distribution and, thus, enable them to sell goods and services to Americans at lower prices – then Americans are made better off. If the Chinese invent new products and offer to sell these new products to Americans at prices that Americans find attractive, Americans are made better off. If the forces of international competition oblige Chinese producers to lower their export prices to levels closer to their costs of production, then Americans are made better off. If the Chinese government forces Chinese citizens to subsidize the production of goods and services sold to Americans so that Americans can purchase these goods and services at artificially low prices, then Americans are made better off (although Chinese citizens, other than those involved in the export trade, are made unjustifiably worse off). If the Chinese monetary authority buys U.S. dollars with newly created yuan in order to (of necessity temporarily) make Chinese exports artificially inexpensive for Americans to buy, then Americans are made better off (although Chinese citizens, other than those involved in the export trade, are made unjustifiably worse off).
The above reality is missed by people, such as Donald Trump (but hardly limited to him) who judge trade to be ‘successful’ only if the jobs and businesses that it visibly – that is, directly – creates in the domestic economy are perceived as being greater than the number of jobs and businesses that it visibly destroys. This error is among the oldest and most difficult to kill in economics – not only because this error is serviceable to domestic producers who greedily seek protection from competition, but also because it appeals to people who refuse to think beyond what is immediately and blindingly obvious.
