Quotation of the Day…
by Don Boudreaux
on January 18, 2019
… is from page 512 of the 11th (2006) edition of one of greatest economics textbooks of all time: Paul Heyne’s, Peter Boettke’s, and David Prychitko’s The Economic Way of Thinking:
Foreign trade and investment have made large contributions to world economic growth, and those who today stridently insist that “globalization” only makes the rich richer while further impoverishing the the poor ought to explain why this should be the case now when it was not the case in the past, even the very recent past. Nations that have been insulated from the world economy or have chosen to insulate themselves have not experienced notable economic growth. On the other hand, the examples of Hong Kong (before its incorporation into China in 1997) and Singapore should be sufficient to refute those who doubt the power of the international division of labor to generate wealth for those who participate in the global economy. These tiny countries, set in hostile environments and almost totally devoid of what we ordinarily think of as natural resources, achieved astounding records of economic growth by throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the whirl of international trade and investment.
DBx: Indeed so. And fortunately – contrary to the expectations of many in 1997, and even a few years afterward – the people of Hong Kong continue to enjoy a policy of almost complete free trade.
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