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wow, that's some high-density bullshit. > But which nation is going to be growing faster in economic terms? well, likely both. because of trade and specializa

by pas 4y ago

wow, that's some high-density bullshit. > But which nation is going to be growing faster in economic terms? well, likely both. because of trade and specialization. when the US offshored shoemaking people did not just went to the beach and called it a day. both capital and labor got reallocated for better returns. (yes, not everyone moved to the service industry, unfortunately not everybody was able or willing to change to different jobs/sectors.) > maybe even having more and better atomic bombs even one is plenty. > If you try and talk like this to an economics professor, and I’ve done this three times, they shrink in horror and offense because they don’t like this kind of talk. It really gums up this nice discipline of theirs, which is so much simpler when you ignore second and third order consequences. was it at a xenophobic libertarian economists party? anyway regarding higher order effects and long-term strategy and American "interests": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKVQDUQR8I4&t=117s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKVQDUQR8I4&t=117s and https://reason.com/2022/06/07/globalization-is-alive-well-and-changing/ https://reason.com/2022/06/07/globalization-is-alive-well-an...

ren_engineer 4y ago
>wow, that's some high-density bullshit. your response to the argument that economists are wrong is to post more stuff from economists that don't look at 2nd order effects? China doesn't practice anything resembling free trade and as a result they are dominating naïve Western economies the biggest problem is people who worship "free trade" as a religion while smarter nations use it as a tool to bash them in the head
- pas 4y ago
  None of those are economists though. (I don't know whether they have econ degrees of some sorts but neither of them are practicing economists, both are pundits.) I'm completely in favor of levying customs on China for anticompetitive practices. (Eg. favoring state-owned enterprises against other market participants.) The point that the free trade zealots make - correctly IMHO - is that despite all the problems with the freeness of trade the trade part in itself got us so so so much prosperity. > they are dominating naïve Western economies Okay, that's a very vague claim. Dominating how? Their GDP growth is bigger? (Which is completely expected, it's much easier to catch up.) They stole a lot of tech? (Western companies knew all the risks when they entered into these partnerships, plus if they feel their IP is misused they can - and do - sue both inside and outside China, I guess with largely predictable outcomes.)

by pas 4y ago

ren_engineer 4y ago

>wow, that's some high-density bullshit. your response to the argument that economists are wrong is to post more stuff from economists that don't look at 2nd order effects? China doesn't practice anything resembling free trade and as a result they are dominating naïve Western economies the biggest problem is people who worship "free trade" as a religion while smarter nations use it as a tool to bash them in the head

pas 4y ago
None of those are economists though. (I don't know whether they have econ degrees of some sorts but neither of them are practicing economists, both are pundits.) I'm completely in favor of levying customs on China for anticompetitive practices. (Eg. favoring state-owned enterprises against other market participants.) The point that the free trade zealots make - correctly IMHO - is that despite all the problems with the freeness of trade the trade part in itself got us so so so much prosperity. > they are dominating naïve Western economies Okay, that's a very vague claim. Dominating how? Their GDP growth is bigger? (Which is completely expected, it's much easier to catch up.) They stole a lot of tech? (Western companies knew all the risks when they entered into these partnerships, plus if they feel their IP is misused they can - and do - sue both inside and outside China, I guess with largely predictable outcomes.)