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Paradoxically, self-sufficiency – the kind of subsistence living that protects you from global pandemics or financial crises – is precarious. Local risks like storms, harvest failures, or forest fires cannot be dealt with by drawing on resources from elsewhere.
In contrast, depending on others via lengthy global supply chains exposes us to occasional shortfalls of specific goods and relative price changes when storms or viruses knock out some production. But price systems and capitalist entrepreneurs work hard to find more, to adapt, to substitute, and to create the very resources most urgently needed.
Indeed, they work harder, better, faster and stronger than any other system we know. Riding out storms and sharing risks across billions of people is a feature, not a bug, and the affluent capitalist nature of our institutions puts us in a better position to deal with them.
Dan Ikenson reports on Americans’ toilet-paper-trade deficit! [4] A slice:
Milton Friedman liked to point out that exports are things we produce but don’t get to consume, while imports are things we consume without having to produce. Yet, when Americans get more stuff from foreigners than foreigners get from Americans, it’s called a “deficit.” Go figure!
Government: working hard to make matters worse [6].
In this video, Art Carden explores the anatomy of government failure [7].
Ross McKitrick celebrates the public-health benefits of plastic [8].