Trade Trials And Triumphsmale Speakerinternational Trade Res

Trade Trials And Triumphsmale Speakerinternational Trade Restrictions Trade Trials And Triumphsmale Speakerinternational Trade Restrictions TRADE: TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS Male Speaker International trade restrictions. According to one study, 93% of economists think such restrictions are a bad idea because they reduce economic welfare. They believe the trade is the way to produce more, better, and cheaper stuff and services for us all. The phrase often used to justify trade is "comparative advantage," an idea that comes up throughout economic says Northwestern Professor Robert Gordon. Robert Gordon The real way to talk about comparative advantage is to talk about everyday people, and how about the example of a lawyer? A woman lawyer, very talented at law but also able to type twice as fast as her male secretary and what should she do? Should she be doing the typing? No. She should be out winning trials and winning law cases and that male secretary plotting along at half the speed should be doing the typing because she probably makes ten times as much as he does. Male Speaker And if she is making ten times as much, it means that to the economy, the lawyering is worth ten times as much as the typing. The typist has a comparative advantage in typing because he can make more that way than as a lawyer, which without a law degree can make a dime at. The lawyer has an obvious comparative advantage in lawyering because no one will pay her that much to type. So both parties are better off by specializing and then trading the fruits of what they do. But if this is the way to go within our country's borders, why is trade consistently discouraged across borders by the various forms of what is called "protectionism"? Because countries all over the world are under pressure to protect their local companies and workers from foreign competition. They do so in several standard ways. By imposing quotas, a ceiling on the amount of something that can be imported from another country or imposing tariffs, taxes on all imports coming into a country or instituting other non-tariff barriers like subsidies to domestic industries so they can price their goods below foreign competitors. For example, the U.S. imposed tariffs on corn brooms made in Mexico to hike their price and thus, discourage Americans from buying them. Why? Because the jobs of corn broom workers like those in this Alabama factory were threatened by corn broom workers in Mexico making one-sixth what these folks were. Male Speaker I would not wish to compete, not with the kind of way that the Mexicans are earning, you know, a dollar. I can live off -- Male Speaker The same holds true in loads of industries, from textiles to