Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 70 of Art Carden’s and GMU Econ alum Caleb Fuller’s new book, Mere Economics (original emphasis):

But what about those American workers who lost their jobs? Benefits to other Americans are probably cold comfort for textile worker struggling to pay the rent. We still think the move to free trade is justified for four reasons. First, others’ gains become opportunities elsewhere, including opportunities for their descendants, and we’re not sure it’s fair to deny them these opportunities just so Bob can keep making socks. Second, civil society institutions like churches and the Lion’s Club are very good at helping people through difficult transitions. Third, any change is going to make someone worse off. If this book fails miserably because someone else writes a better book, are we owed anything? Do you owe anything to the person whose book you’re not reading because you’re reading this one? Fourth, if we couple free trade and easier immigration with deregulation elsewhere – like in the housing sector, for example – they we are pretty confident that Bob the sockmaker will be able to find a good job building houses and skyscrapers.

DBx: Trade skeptics will react negatively to Carden’s and Fuller’s last line. These skeptics will accuse us free traders of naively supposing that a worker skilled and specialized at working in a textile mill or a shipyard will easily enough be able to switch his or her job to an equally good one on the likes of a construction site or at a health-care facility. But this criticism misses Carden’s and Fuller’s other three points, and especially points number one and three. If this trade-skeptic criticism were valid, it would imply that government should prevent anyone who cannot easily switch to a very different job from losing his or her current job. Under such a draconian economic policy, not only would economic growth stop, the economy would eventually grind to a halt and become primitive.

The liberal market order improves the living standards of the great majority of people during their actual lives, and improves the living standard of literally everyone who is part of that order over a few lifetimes.