Here’s a letter to National Review Online.
Editor:
Michael Brendan Dougherty completely misses the point of Dan Foster’s excellent response to J.D. Vance’s express desire to “undo” 40 years of globalization (“Undoubtedly 6.8 Percent Is Less than 70 Percent,” October 2). Contrary to Mr. Dougherty’s portrayal, Mr. Foster’s argument is not that the many improvements in America’s economy over the past four decades are due overwhelmingly to globalization, with little to no role played by domestic factors. Instead, as is clear from reading Mr. Foster’s post, he’s challenging Vance’s premise about the condition of America’s economy today compared to its condition in the mid-1980s.
Mr. Dougherty treats Vance’s premise as being this: such a small share of America’s enormous economic improvement over the past 40 years is due to globalization that we can afford to “undo” globalization. But Mr. Dougherty is mistaken. Vance’s actual premise is that there has been no such improvement over the past 40 years in America’s economy. It is that this economy has been so severely damaged over the past 40 years that we must “undo” the economic policies, including globalization, that Vance alleges caused this supposed calamity.
Yet as the facts mustered by Mr. Foster make clear, America’s economy – including the lot of ordinary Americans – has dramatically improved since the mid-1980s. He thus disproves Vance’s premise that the economic liberalization of the past 40 years has failed ordinary Americans.
By the way, I, too, offered evidence against Vance’s clueless premise about the condition of the U.S. economy. And here are yet other bits of evidence against Vance’s ignorant belief:
– America today has 93% more industrial capacity than it had in 1985 (even though U.S. population today is only 44% larger).
– The real value of America’s capital stock was, as of 2023 (the latest year for which I have data), 138% larger than it was in 1985.
– U.S. industrial output is today 85% higher than it was in 1985.
– Americans’ exports of goods and services are nearly 600% greater, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than were Americans’ exports in 1985.
Lusting for greater power, both the MAGA right and the ‘progressive’ left continually insist that the failure of government over the past 40 or so years to further squelch free markets has inflicted deep and unambiguous damage on America’s economy. That’s Vance’s message. It is utterly without foundation.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
