Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 40 of the 1st edition (1995) of Russell Roberts’s remarkable book on trade, The Choice; here, Russ has the ghost of David Ricardo responding to someone who insists that “it’s better to make computer chips than potato chips” [link added]:

It depends. Some workers in the potato chip business make a good living. But the real flaw in the saying is the implication that if America gets pushed out of the computer business by unfair foreign competition, or even loses out in a fair fight, the only jobs that are left are the menial ones. But jobs aren’t sitting there like boxes waiting for people to jump into them. Think back to the high-paying medical jobs that wouldn’t exist if disease were eliminated. Do you think the people who would have been doctors are now going to be street sweepers? Or workers on an assembly line producing potato chips? They are not. They are going to take their skills and discipline to learn about something other than medicine. There is no limit to the human imagination. America’s greatest resources are knowledge, know-how, and creativity. Such markets can never be cornered. There have always been occupations that use these skills and there always will be.

DBx: Yes. It’s a point so simple yet profound – and ignored by protectionists, who hold such a low opinion of their fellow citizens’ abilities and gumption that they, the protectionists, presume that individuals, as well as these individuals’ children and grandchildren, are capable of thriving only in the particular current jobs these individuals hold.