Carpe Diem: If Free Trade = Technological Progress, Then Restrictions on Trade = Restrictions on Technology
From Greg Mankiw's textbook:
"Trade is, in some ways, a form of technology. When a country exports wheat and imports textiles, it is as if it had invented a form of technology for turning wheat into textiles. A country that eliminates trade restrictions will, therefore, experience the same kind of economic growth that would occur after a major technological advance."
With that understanding that free trade = technological progress, here's some editing of Ian Fletcher's latest anti-trade tirade, which Don Boudreaux responds to here:
"It is sometimes argued that although free trade technological progress has some victims, its benefits exceed its costs, so it is possible for its winners to compensate its losers out of their gains, everyone thereby coming out ahead in the end. ...
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