A Basic Principle About Trade By Jacob G. Hornberger!!
(2017-11-18 at 09:57:41 )

A Basic Principle About Trade by Jacob G. Hornberger

In every trade, both sides benefit, from their own individual perspective. The reason is simple: Each side is giving up something he values less for something he values more.

That means, then, that trade, in and of itself, raises peoples standard of living. At the moment of the trade, both traders are better off than they were before the trade.

Suppose Peter has 100 oranges and Paul has 100 apples. They start talking about a trade. After extensive negotiations, they enter into an agreement in which Peter gives 90 oranges to Paul and receives, in exchange, 10 apples from Paul.

At first glance, one might be tempted to say that this is a highly unfair and unequal trade. To be fair and equal, one might say, it should be 50 oranges for 50 apples.

Not so, however. What is fair is what the two parties have voluntarily agreed to. From Peters perspective, he places a higher value on 10 apples than he does on 90 oranges. The minute the trade is made, he is better off than he was before. He has a higher standard of living, from his own subjective perspective. The same goes for Paul.

Suppose an African-American inner-city teenager enters into a trade in which he agrees to work for an employer for a dollar an hour. Has his standard of living gone up? Absolutely.

From his own subjective perspective, he is better off than he was before the trade. We know this because otherwise he would never have entered into the trade. The benefits of learning work skills might figure into the teenagers perspective, much like what happens when students take internships that pay them no money.

It stands to reason then that the greater the opportunities for trade, the higher the standard of living.

A corollary becomes obvious: To the extent that government laws, rules, and regulations interfere with peoples freedom to trade with others, to that extent government is reducing people’s standard of living. It is making them poorer.

Therefore, if people want rising standards of living, the ideal is an economic system based on free trade, one in which people are free to trade with anyone they want to anywhere in the world without governmental interference.

Printed here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!