… is from page 107 of Tyler Cowen’s brilliant 2002 book, Creative Destruction:
Empirically, however, we find strong evidence that large potential audiences support product differentiation. Larger cities typically have more diverse cultural offerings than do much smaller cities or rural areas.
DBx: Yes. And it follows that, by expanding the size of firms’ potential audience – or customer base – free trade promotes more-diverse cultural offerings.
Progressive opponents of free trade are blind to this empirical (and theoretical) reality. If they understood that free trade actually has this effect, this effect would, for progressives, be regarded as a feature of free trade and not a bug. But, again, progressives – preternaturally skeptical of commerce that isn’t ‘local’ – are blind to this feature of free trade.
In contrast, national conservatives, MAGA-types, and many other right-wing protectionists are not blind to this empirical (and theoretical) reality of free trade. But it’s a reality that they dislike. The cultural diversity made possible by free trade is, for these ‘conservatives,’ a bug, and not a feature, of free trade.
True liberals are pretty much alone in both understanding and applauding this consequence of free trade.
